Milestones (and strawberries)

Well, I wasn't going to start out with strawberries but that's how the pictures came up so here goes: Mason, Drew and I went out to the Island on Saturday and picked 23lbs of juicy, sweet berries. That may be stretching the truth a bit. Mason actually was more interested in moving the marker flags along the rows than in picking berries. It was fun having him out there with us as a "big kid" anyway. I guess I should be impressed with my kids' honesty but neither one of them would eat a berry out in the field because we hadn't paid for them yet. I thought maybe that was a rule you could bend in a berry patch but they weren't having it. I must have beat that idea into them when we are shopping the bulk foods in Winco.

We were proud of our hard work and harvest and had a great time hanging out together.

Drew is my great helper when it comes to mashing the berries. That freed me up to do the cleaning and hulling on one end and the sugar and pectin on the other. We ended up with 15 pints of jam, 3 gallon freezer bags full for smoothies, chocolate covered strawberries which oddly enough my kids aren't fans of, strawberry shortcake, and countless numbers of fresh berries in Darcy's tummy. It was a great harvest.

So our first milestone was Bree starting to eat solid food. She had her first taste of rice cereal on Sunday. She had about 3 bites and it looked like she actually swallowed a little bit. I held off a few weeks feeding her the solid food, unlike my other kids who had it the minute they turned 4 months. I don't know if its because I felt she wasn't ready yet or maybe I wasn't ready to admit that my last baby was turning into a big girl. Whatever, I'm over it now. Let the peas and carrots begin!

Our second major milestone happened yesterday and today as Drew graduated from kindergarten! She had a very nice program yesterday at school where her class and another sang to us, we watched a slide show, and listened as the teacher gave a brief synopsis on each child and handed them their diploma. Drew's teacher commented on her responsibilty and how she must be a great big sister. Yep! That's my Drew. Today was the last day of school and I was a total boob and cried as I picked her up for the last time! As much as I am always wishing my kids were older, I sure don't appreciate it when it is apparent they actually are getting older and not quite as dependent on me as they used to be. I am so proud of Drew and how much she has grown through her school year. She learned how to tie her shoes, snap her fingers, count forever and by 2's, 5's, and 10's, improve her reading quite a bit to where she can read random kids books now, she ran the most laps in her class for the PTA fund raiser, and she showed that she truly is a very responsible young lady who is driven to succeed in all she does, without having to be asked twice. At least that's what they tell me she does at school. Its a different story when it comes to picking up toys at home. I will be glad for the break from loading all the kids in the car twice a day for the next 2.5 months, but in September we increase to 3 times a day with Mason attending preschool. But I am soooo looking forward to those 2.5 hours when it will just be me and the 2 little girls at home napping. Hopefully the weather will start to cooperate and our summer fun can now begin.

Rolly Pollies

Mason's new obsession: Rolly Pollies. Mason has discovered that rolly pollies love to live in wood chips. And wouldn't you know it, we have a great big pile of wood chips in our side yard which is a haven for our rolly pollies! How lucky can one 4 year old boy get? He comes away from that pile with his hands full of the things. As part of his birthday science kit he got a bug collecting system and observatory. That green thing in the picture is the bottom of it. I don't know how many poor little rolly pollies, both alive and dead, I have set free from that thing after Mason goes to bed at night. He makes swimming pools for them, though I have discovered they can't swim. I told him they drown but he swears they are just sleeping, probably after having such a good swim. This carboard concoction is his rolly polly castle, made from the cardboard that came with my new vacuum. And can I just digress for a minute to admit that my new vacuum with a see-through dirt canister both thrills and disgusts me. I love to see all the dirt and dust we vacuum up each time, but it is so gross that there is that much dirt and dust to vacuum up each time! The kids love to see it too, which brings on fights over who gets to use the new vacuum, which makes my life a little easier so I won't complain. But it is gross just how much junk is in my carpets. Anyway, at the time this picture was taken there were 11 bugs crawling around. I try not to get "bugged" by it all but their little flailing legs when they are stranded on their backs kind of freak me out. Thank goodness I was never a 4 year old boy or I would have failed the bug test.