First day of summer.

 

On this first day of June and our first official day of summer vacation I expected to be displaying a picture of Grace playing the piano during her recital. But alas, she awoke with a sore throat and fever so we had a change in plans. Instead we had a rather lazy day around the house.

Due to our laziness we managed to finish our first read-aloud book of the summer, "Because of Winn-Dixie" by Kate DiCamillo. Dean and I had gotten away from reading aloud to Grace each evening (for reasons which I'll share later) so it certainly feels great to be back at it.

We hope you'll join us this summer and see what we're up to!

Birthday Bingo

Over the weekend we spent time helping Meme celebrate her birthday. One of the activities we did together was to play bingo at the first ever "Bingo Night" at Grace's school. Things started off quite well, but then quickly turned sour. You see, Grace can be a bit competetive and when she doesn't win, the drama often begins.

Here's how the night unfoled......

Needless to say there were no Bingo's in the cards for us on this given night.... but there's always hope for next time!

Ten

Our sweet Sophie recently turned ten. As with any birthday or festivity Grace enjoys the role of party planner. Sohpie's special day was no exception. Upon her arrival home from school, Grace went right to work - from crafting a card and banner to making a bone shaped "cake" (since Sophie is on a strict prescrition diet due to her sensitive stomach, Grace made the cake using canned dog food) nothing was left out.

Once Dean arrived home and our dinner was complete, Grace played "Happy Birthday" for Sophie on the piano while we were instructed to sing. Then, the girls (yes, Lucy partook in the treats too) had their yummy birthday cakes.

It was a sweet celebration indeed!

In the Garden

We found ourselves with an extra ten minutes this morning before having the need to head off to school. Grace decided that she wanted to spend the time outside peeking around the garden.

For some reason it always seems that so much growth occurs during the night while we're fast asleep. And the plants always appear refreshed first thing in the morning too, unlike their parched state come late afternoon.






Pictures from top to bottom.... 1) Grace holding one of the colossal zucchinis - I swear they're the size of your pinkie finger one day, then the size of a billy club the next. 2) One of the many melon blossoms with bush beans in the background 3) Lucy up to her naughtiness in the garden - she's a digger I tell you. 4) An early morning visitor on a corn stalk 5) Grace and Sophie taking a rest after peeking around.

So indeed, the morning is a good time to look around this little garden of ours.

Before and After

Lucy received her first haircut from the groomer last week. Both she and Sophie had reached a ten on the fuzz-o-meter index or in other words were long overdue. You see the groomer wouldn't take Lucy until she had completed her full course of puppy shots and with wanting to keep both dogs on the same haircutting schedule, we waited.

Here's how they looked before.......



And after.......



Quite a difference wouldn't you say?

Strawberry Picking and Jam Making

While Grace was on spring break we headed to our favorite spot for strawberry picking, Hunsader Farms. This has seemed to become a tradition of ours, a visit to the farm come late February or early March. We spend an hour or so picking berries, then it's off to visit with the animals and swing on the swings.

This year we picked around sixteen pounds of the red gems before our baskets became heavy and we could no longer bend over. And Grace, as per her usual, spent some of her time in the fields picking wild flowers, making them into cute wee bouquets.





After our morning in the fresh air, it was time to head home to put those yummy berries to good use. Jam making it was - a total of sixteen jars worth. As in previous years, I used two different recipes. One being the "strawberry jam" by Katherine on allrecipes.com and the other, "classic strawberry preserves" from the book, "Canning for a New Generation" by Liana Krissoff. Both are made sans pectin, with first being more sweet, with the consistency and flavor of typical jam, while the latter is made with less sugar and whole berries, making it a perfect dessert topping.


Ah yes, I hope this little tradition of ours will continue for many years to come!

It's Spring

Despite the fact that it already feels like summer, the calendar is indicating otherwise - it claims that it's the first day of spring. We seemed to have missed winter altogether, as we only had one night of frost and I can count on my two hands the number of times Grace was able to wear her winter clothes. Oh well, I should stop complaining since we actually had a decent rain shower this evening - the first in many weeks.

So here's to a full rain barrel and well watered plants - happy spring!