Make Playdough

Silly me...when the girls added "make playdough" to the list I decided to save it for a rainy day. What fun, I imagined, to spend a whole dreary summer day inside with the girls whipping up new playdough recipes and creating masterpieces until our hands cramped, our fingers ached, and we could create no more. Yeah, that didn't happen. Instead, I waited one 100 degree day after another while the summer days ticked by and we slowly started to run out of time. Like I said, silly me, playdough making would have been the perfect air conditioned INDOOR activity for anyone of those sizzlin' summer days. Ah well, you live and learn! Finally, after days of Bug's pleading to get started, I let go of my little fantasy, and we picked a Saturday afternoon to get working. We decided to spice things up a bit by trying out five different types of playdough recipes and experimenting to see which one we liked the best. Who knew there are so many different recipes for playdough out there?? The ones we picked were Alum, Traditional, Kool Aid, Cooked, and Rubbery playdough. We also decided to add food coloring and glitter. Making playdough with four kids and a dog in our small kitchen was quite the project, but we managed to get it done and somehow everyone got an equal turn at adding ingredients and stirring the dough. My counters, floor, and stove did end up covered in flour, baking powder, and salt, but that was to be expected. Besides, things couldn't have worked out more perfectly because the teeny one decided to take a nap after we were done cooking and the big girls and I zipped off to an afternoon movie which left Mac to clean up the mess:) We got back home stuffed with popcorn to a clean kitchen and the girls got right to work creating and scultping. They have played for hours and hours with that playdough! Next time, I won't wait so long to make it and they will have even more time to play. Oh, and there is a debate over which type was the best. I guess we will just have to try out even more recipes until we can come up with a clear winner.

Flower Picking

Thank goodness for Butler's Orchard AND for this past Friday! I am so grateful for Butler's because we have spent so many of our summer days there this past year, and if it weren't for them I am not sure what I would have done when Peanut decided to add flower picking to our summer list. I held my breath in anticipation waiting to see if Mrs. Butler's flower garden would be open again this year, otherwise, I was going to have to sneak the girls out in the middle of the night and let them loose on a neighbor's yard. That, or beg a Grandmother to let them have a go at one of their well tended gardens. Luckily, it WAS open and my sister in law, Megan, and her three girls were once again able to join us in checking an item off of the list.

After all of these hot, hot, HOT summer days we somehow managed to pick the perfect day to complete this activity. This was pure chance, because I didn't even check the weather before we walked out the door. We had a head start getting to the fields so we headed to the slides while we waited for Megan's crew. Oh, what a beautiful summer day! The sky was blue with fluffy, white clouds, and there was an actual BREEZE. It felt wonderful sitting in the grass with the teeny one and Peanut while the big girls went down the slides. Of course, I should have known what would happen when I took them to the slides. I should have known Peanut would beg me to take her down the slide. But, somehow I didn't, and so I ended up going down the big belly bumper slide. In a skirt. Without the Peanut. She chickened out when it was too late for me to turn back. Little booger!

When Megan's gang joined us we spent a little more time on the slides and then headed off to the flower fields. How it works is, you give your child a knife to hack away at the flowers and for $8.00 they can stuff as many flowers as they can fit into a cup. No joke, we handed each little girl a knife and set them off to run around the field. Welllllllll, pumpkin cutters, so they are not sharp. On the way to Butler's and again walking to the field I had a long talk with the girls about how we were only going to get ONE cup of flowers and share that ONE cup. They were surprisingly agreeable. After about five minutes of picking flowers I heard a voice ring out, "Mom, Peanut filled another cup!!" Sigh. Okay, TWO cups, no more! It really is a lot of fun to pick the flowers. They have a large variety and if I knew anything about flowers I could list the different types here, but since I don't I will just say they have a lot of different types in a lot of different colors. I can say they have sunflowers. An added bonus is all the butterflies that are swirling around you as you pick flowers. I had a sniffly mommy moment watching Girly running around the field with the butterflies. Eight years ago we picked flowers at Butler's for the first time when she was just two years old, she had chubby little cheeks and wispy blond hair, and would grab at the butterflies and almost crush them in her hands. This year when I asked her to catch one so I could recreate a photo from that long ago day she looked at me in horror because she didn't want to hurt it's wings. Ahh, she is growing up so fast! It took her a long time, but she finally was able to gently catch one by cupping her hands around it. When she opened her hands to get a picture with the butterfly all I got was one with her standing with her hands open and empty. The butterfly was too fast, just like all of the days that have flown by since that picture was taken of her proud little two year old self holding up the butterfly for her Mommy to see what she caught. Sniff. Oh, thank goodness for Butler's, so very many happy memories created there!

A Slip Down A Wooden Slide

After a little break from the list to do some much needed household chores, we are back on track!!

First item on the agenda...slide down the wooden slide. Now, this little addition to the list did not come from my girls or I, it came from Jennie, the BFF. She has been trying to get me down this wooden slide for some time now but our schedules never seemed to work out. Soooo, to ensure that we made it there this summer I added it to the list. This slide is located at Mt. Tabor park, which is located God knows where because I followed Jennie and her neighbor in my car and I have no idea where they took me. I just know we passed a LOT of farms. The slide is a huge wooden contraption that looks kind of like a bowling alley lane with a big pile of wood chips at the bottom. Jennie told me it was going to be a lot of fun, what she did not tell me was that it was a little, umm, hazardous. I became a little suspicious of this fact when glancing around the park and spotting several signs saying, "MT. TABOR Park is not responsible for any accidents". Hmmm...haven't seen that sign at any of the other local parks that I have stumbled upon. The next little clue was when we walked over to the slide and saw the other kids whizzing down at out of control speeds twirling and hitting the walls. I glance at Jennie. What in the world has she gotten us into???? Well, it was on the list, we came all this way, so what else was there to do but climb the ramp and take a turn down the slippery slope. Besides, you know your kids are in for some good, wholesome fun when most of the other kids who are visiting the slide are Amish. The big girls were all for it, they were a bit nervous, but they went up right away and came on down. Peanut took some convincing and I had to go on up with her. So here we go again, brave mama face, smile, drag her a little, and slide. Wheeeee! It was fun, a little scary, and my heels were burning from trying to control my speed by digging them into the wooden planks, but fun all the same. The hardest part was the bottom. More wood chips were needed because you just kind of hit a little one foot drop which had me worrying about kids falling back and hitting their heads. We did have a few tears due to slide burns, but that was from the little ones who were refusing to use the towels or pillowcases that we brought along. The big girls even upped the ante by using wax paper for an even faster ride. We ended up on the slide for about 45 minutes and had to stop when all the kids were either dripping with sweat from climbing the ramp or too scared to go down for fear of future burns. The park also had swings and the biggest self propelled merry go round that I have ever seen. You could have fit about twenty or so kids on that thing! The kids loved it and are already begging to go back to take their cousins along. A good plan, although, I have visions of the daddies whipping my little ones around that merry go round while they hang on for dear life with their legs flying out behind them! Anyway, it was a lot of fun and if you ever decide to visit be sure to pack a lunch or snack, or at least lots of water, to replenish the children of all the energy they use climbing the ramp so many times.

Dress like a cow!

A funny thing happened this time last year, my mother and I stumbled into Chick Fil-a for a late lunch with the girls and discovered...cows! People dressed like cows that is! I was sitting at the table when I looked to my right and saw a whole family dressed like cows. "They sure are strange," I thought. Then I look to my left. More cows. What in the world was going on? The whole place was filled with people dressed like cows. It took a good few minutes, but my mom and I finally figured it out (with the help of a sign), it was "Cow Appreciation Day" and if you dressed like a cow you got a free meal. Last year I said, "Those people are NUTS! I will gladly pay for my own chicken sandwich, thank you very much!" This year, well, ahem, this year I am sporting spots. Cow spots that is. On my shirt. On my toes. On my children. And, um, on my mom, sister, niece, two nephews, and my best friend's boy. I just had to do it. I just had to join in on "Cow Appreciation Day" when I knew it was coming. I saw the sign and somehow it got added to our list. This year WE were the crazy people everyone was staring at and thinking, so not worth a free sandwich! But guess what? Even without the free meal, I would have done it again!! It was just too much fun to dress up like cows! You should have felt the level of excitement in my house this morning while we were dressing up all the kids...it was like getting ready for the prom! Giggling girls running around everywhere, checking each other out! And, that was just my mom, sister, and I. You should have heard the kids!! Then, we had to drive to pick up my friend Jennie's son up from daycare. A small group of children staring at me like I was crazy, and their teacher said nothing! She must have been warned. Jen must be telling stories about me because the woman didn't even blink. I am not sure what the residents of Frederick thought about the caravan of cows driving through town, but I am sure we caused quite a few double takes. Once we got to the restaurant it was fun to mingle among the other cow folk. Although, I must admit to partaking in some odd form of cow snobbery. I mean, really, some of those other cows just had paper spots pinned to their shirts!. Ours were the far superior felt spots properly glued to our shirts (even though I goofed on the ears a little and we all looked a little like Shrek). Truly, I don't see why we don't do this everyday! We should go to McDonalds dressed like clowns, Roy Rogers dressed like cowboys, Burger King dressed like royalty! The list goes on and on. And, I am sure my family would go along with me. They must be used to my crazy ways by now...it took hardly any convincing to get them to dress like cows after all! I think they secretly love that I force them to do all this weird stuff! I wonder what else I can make them do...hmmmm!?!? I can't wait to find out!

So, we did it, we dressed like cows! Another item completed from the list, even though this was a late addition, we got it done. And, I learned a little, too. I learned that making cow costumes actually costs MORE than what we would have paid for our meals, and that it takes a whole lot of time to cut out spots, but it sure is a whole heck of a lot of FUN!

Play in a Waterfall AND go to the Zoo

Wow! We are really on a roll now! Because Monday was a holiday and Mac had off of work we decided to knock two items off of the list. We started off at Cunningham falls to "play in a waterfall." Joining us were Mac's parents, his sister, and her family. Now, technically, I could have claimed three items because we DID hike to the falls, but I will leave it at two (unless, of course, we don't go on another hike before Labor day, then this one will count). With two strollers in tow we decided to take the lower, easier path to the falls. The girls, all seven of them, seemed to have a fun time walking on the way up. There were critters to see, a toad, two chipmunks, a salamander, and a millipede, wild raspberries to taste, and rocks to climb, lots and lots of rocks! Peanut wanted her picture taken on EVERY single one. Needless to say, it took us a while to reach the falls, but get there we did! Hmm...when I decided that we must play in a waterfall this summer I didn't quite realize what the falls would look like. A huge, treacherous rock with water trickling down! How were we going to play in that? Should I risk my little darlings, life and limb, to cross an item off of the list? Well, yeah, we gotta do what we gotta do. Kind of. We cheated. Just a little. We actually played at the BOTTOM of the falls where they collect in a nice little pool. Well, Mac, my brother in law, and five of the girls did. We just had to ignore a little, tiny sign that said, "No Swimming." Of course, nothing could have prepared my little princesses for the shock of cold mountain water (please refer to "go swimming" blog here). Bug and two of my daredevil neices jumped in right away. Girly had to be encouraged a little, persauded a lot, and finally, bribed with silly bandz to go across. Peanut opted out of this one, no amount of silly bandz was going to get her body in that water, not that I blame her! She decided to do her own thing and had the best time sorting and making little piles of rocks all over the huge, rock base. We left the place behind with it looking like some weird form of "The Blair Witch Project." Everywhere you looked there were these odd, little pile of rocks.

After the falls and a quick lunch, we headed to the Catoctin Zoo. Now, this zoo is where you go when you want to get up close and personal with the animals. Tucked right off of 15, it looks like it would be a little hole in the wall that maybe houses five animals. However, once you enter it is really rather nice. Some of the animals probably could have bigger cages, but they seemed to be very happy and very active. No giraffes or elephants, but they do have lions, tigers, bears, monkeys, deer, tortoises, snakes, and many, many more animals. They also have a new safari that I am dying to try and on some days camel rides. While at the zoo, my family is one who definitely likes to take their time. The girls love to watch the animals and Mac loves to narrate what they are thinking, the animals that is. Very amusing, to me at least. Which, I guess is a good thing considering I married him (and he also does it with pictures). We got to feed deer, goats, fish, ducks, a three legged donkey, and a llama. The girls even got to pet tortoises, before I realized that their tiny hands were tucked into the pen and screeched for them to take them out. You really DO get up close and personal with the animals at this zoo! The tigers are so close you could really just jump a small fence and get mauled if you wanted to. Luckily, we saved that for a future list. The teeny one just loved all the animals and spent about ten minutes growling at the tiger. Like I said, we really like to take our time at the zoo! Even though the place is mostly under shade, it was HOT on Monday and we all started to wilt after a while. Tired, sweaty, hot, and dirty we decided to call it a day. After a mini family tailgating party with Popsicles and watermelon we all piled into our cars to head home. I eagerly situated myself in my seat and grabbed the camera to look at the pictures we had taken. I started laughing. The camera screen said, "Battery exhausted." Mine too, camera, mine too!!

Blueberry Picking!

Blue skies and a summer breeze...what a perfect day for blueberry picking! Yesterday the girls and I met up with my mother in law, my sister in law and three of my nieces for a fun day at Butler's Orchard. Blueberry picking is always extra exciting because you get to have a tractor ride to the field. We were in for an extra thrill this time because the driver started us off in such a jerky fashion that we almost fell on the floor! In fact, one poor little guy did end up on the floor and he wasn't too happy about it. When picking blueberries with seven little girls, how can it be anything else but a great time? Usually, these girls pair off by age, but today they tried something different. Girly tended to my baby niece, picking her up for her to pick berries. Bug paired up with my five year old niece, and together these two giggled and ate more berries then they put in their bucket. Peanut hung out with the eldest, and those two were a perfect pair because their competitive spirits took over and they searched for the biggest blueberry. It was kind of nice for things to be so different, and I was more interested in watching them all interact with each other than in picking berries. The teeny one discovered a love of blueberries and I couldn't break off little pieces fast enough, as soon as she saw one she would start grunting! I don't blame her, these are the only blueberries that I will eat. Something about a warm, juicy berry just makes it so much yummier!

For an even better time, Butler's had their slides open. Peanut convinced me to go down the big slide with her so I had to put my brave mommy face on. You know, the one I wear when I am trying to pretend like I am having a great time but inside I probably have more butterflies than she does! Hey, you should have seen this slide! It is pretty steep AND you have to go through a bumpy tunnel. At one point on the way down I started feeling out of control and began to wonder if I was going to even be able to stop, but luckily Butler's designed the slide just right and we landed at the bottom safe and sound. Phew, it wasn't too bad, we even went down again!

After we got home we decided to try out a new recipe and make blueberry crumb muffins. It required a trip to the grocery store and we tweaked the recipe a little to make a batch of gluten free ones for Girly. All the work of making muffins from scratch and the girls ended up not even liking them:( Too many blueberries they said, little stinkers! Oh well, Mac liked them and the dog LOVED them, so much so he had to jump up and knock them off the counter to eat them!

Take Me Out to the Ball Game!

Isn't it amazing that you can't recreate a moment? It seems like it would be such a simple thing to do, but it is just NOT possible. So many times I have been somewhere and felt such a wave of pure happiness that all I could think about was how to recreate that feeling, that very moment in my life, but it just doesn't happen that way. You can't do it. Once it is over, it is gone, and I think that in trying to recreate it you take something away. I had to learn this the hard way, so many times I would feel this and even as I was feeling so happy inside, part of me was trying to think of ways to recreate it. I would plan everything out...the same people, the same place, even the same time of day, but it was never quite the same. It took being a Mom for me to learn that you can't make special moments happen, they just do, so you better grab hold and enjoy it while you can because once it is gone, it's gone, never to be experienced in quite the same way again.

Last night was a series of moments, such sweet, special ones I just wanted to hold onto them forever. We took the girls to the Keys game with Mac's grandfather, his parents, and our niece. Driving to the game the three big girls sang "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" the whole way there. The baby cooed and squealed the entire time, so delighted that her big sisters were so entertaining. I dressed the girls in red, white, and blue to celebrate going to a baseball game, the all- American pastime. When we got there, we found my niece dressed in red and white, completely unplanned, but perfect all the same. We had great seats. The kids ate popcorn and pretzels for dinner. They rode a carousel and jumped in a moon bounce. They played games. Bug and Peanut won prizes. Girly and my niece didn't, but they didn't even complain. The mascot came up to us and the girls were on the Jumbo screen. The Keys won. The kids all got to run around the bases at the end of the game. We watched the fireworks and the baby was so enchanted by the lights that she reached for the sky. When we walked to the car Grandpa held my niece's little hand the entire way, even though he was limping and his knee hurt. The girls sang "Take Me Out To The Ball Game" the whole way home. When brushing her teeth, Girly said to me, "Hey Mom, I guess some of those kids have already run around the bases a million times and that is why they didn't want to do it." I asked, "If you had already run around the bases a million times, would you still do it again?" She gave me a big nod and smile. Perfect answer. So many great moments, so sweet, and so special even though I could feel them slipping through my fingers never to be experienced in quite the same way again. Another great day. Another great adventure. Another item checked off the list.

Make Some of Jim's Pancakes

I'm pooped. I'm tired. I am completely exhausted, but we have one more item checked off the list! Now, this item was a covert mission so it never made the written list. Thanks to my sister's knowledge of everything youtube, the girls and I were introduced to the wonderful world of Jim's pancakes. Jim is a man who makes the most creative pancakes for his daughter using squirt bottles and food coloring. He has instructional youtube videos and he blogs about his creations. Seriously, you must check it out, the man is a pancake genius. Once the girls and I had watched the videos we knew that this was something that we just had to try this summer. We also decided to surprise and astound Mac with our extraordinary pancake skills, which then turned it into a secret mission.

Jim makes it look easy. First of all, there is all the preparation. I had to get the pancake supplies (gluten free AND gluten filled for my family), the food coloring, and the assorted squirt bottles for our designs. We planned this mission for a Saturday morning because that is Mac's day to sleep in so we know he would not be snooping around. The only problem with this day is that Peanut has karate at 9:30 in the morning and we are terrible at making it there. So, this Saturday I was determined to do everything, make extraordinary pancakes AND get the Peanut to karate. The teeny tiny one had her own plans! Instead of her usual 7am wake up time she decides to wake up at 5:30am and then take a nap at 6:30am. Well, of course I go back to sleep with her and we all sleep in until 8:15am. Oops! I jump out of bed and run to grab Bug who wants to run to the store with me, and by run, I mean RUN! Hmmm...wasn't it my plan to NOT be rushing around this summer? Somehow instead of rushing to get to school we are rushing to make pancakes!?!?! Oh well, at least we have smiles on our faces. We dash into the store and find the bottles, taking a moment to celebrate our good luck because they are on sale, buy two get one free! Woohoo! We run back home and set up our work station. Time to make the pancakes. When watching the videos by Jim, I was not only amazed by his pancake skill, I was also impressed by the patience he shows his young daughter who is always by his side . So, inspired by Jim, I am determined to be patient with my own daughters during this mission. That means no barking orders and I must suppress my need for perfection when the girls are designing their pancakes. Uh oh, before we could even get started Mac comes downstairs dressed! What in the world? This is the guy who has not seen the early hours of a Saturday morning since I don't know when and here he is looking all awake and alert on the one morning we want him to stay in bed??? The girls look at me with panic in their eyes, but Peanut fixes that problem by saying, "Daddy, we are not going to tell you what we are making for you." He goes back to bed. Onto the pancakes! First, we make the gluten free pancakes for Girly. She decides to make a Club Penguin puffle and a penguin. We are shocked and delighted by our own talent, the pancakes turn out great!! Then, we have to wash all of the supplies and make new colors using the gluten filled batter. We find that this batter is harder to use and it is harder to flip these pancakes, but they also turn out pretty great. We, too, are pancake geniuses just like Jim!!! We take the pancakes upstairs and surprise Mac with our colorful creations. He is thoroughly impressed and we all have fun eating the pancakes in bed. I guess it is a good thing that it IS so much fun to make these pancakes because I have the feeling I am never going to be allowed to make regular ol' pancakes in this house again! Oh yeah, we so did NOT make it to karate, better luck next week I guess!

Go Swimming

Well, now, this one just felt like we were cheating, but the girls wanted to add "go swimming" to the list so we did. It pretty much was cheating considering we had already checked it off the list before we put it on there! Swimming is pretty easy in our family considering my kids are blessed with not one, but two sets of grandparents who have backyard pools. And, not only do they have backyard pools, but they have HEATED pools. This is just a little something we like to call heaven on earth. I must say though that we are all getting a little (okay A LOT) spoiled! I was a kid who belonged to the public pool and had to jump in that frigid water at the break of dawn for swim lessons. Jumped in and then "bobbed" up and down to get used to the water. I can still feel the shock of the cold water as I jumped in the pool. But no, my children do not know this sensation, if I told them to bob in the water they would look at me like I was crazy. "Bob you say, what is this thing you call bobbing, Mother?" No, when my darling little girls are released out of the house to go swimming they race through my parents backyard, little tan legs racing across the grass with beach towels streaming behind them and head straight to...the pool thermometer. I know, I know it is bad and makes my little ones sound like prissy little princesses, which they are so not! These girls are known to handle bugs, frogs, mud! They sling horse poop, for goodness sake, but when it comes to pool water their little noses turn straight up into the air. It has gotten so bad that I cringe when someone else asks us to go swimming because I know what is coming. It always happens. One little innocent face looks up and asks, "What is the temperature of your pool?" I know, I know, we have created little monsters! The worst part is that I think we big "kids" are even worse. My sisters and I (plus our husbands) are just as bad as the kids!! So bad that my poor father must pay to heat the pool at our vacation house. In South Carolina. In August. Just call us the Hiltons.

Feeding the Baby Cows

Onto the cows! A local creamery offers a really fun activity...everyday at 4:00 anyone can go and feed the calves their bottles. Now we have done this activity before and I must admit that when the girls wanted to add this to the list I paused before writing it down. Why the pause, you ask. Well, because I was having flashbacks of baby cow slobber flinging everywhere, flies, goats climbing on my back trying to get the milk, flies, mud, flies, the lovely smell of cow manure, flies, and oh yeah, did I mention the flies? But, the girls wished and I granted so off we went dragging Nanny behind us. Now, my mom is not the animal lover, but she never misses a photo opportunity so she went without complaint. This time I was smart and did not choose one of the hottest days of the summer to visit the creamery. We waited for a nice, cloudy day when it was raining on and off, a perfect choice because I think the flies were reduced to only about a million to every square foot. The first sight we were greeted with was a group of baby ducks running through the calf barn, their little feet flapping in the mud. At the sight of these little ducks I was reminded that feeding the cows is not just about the flies, there are all these sweet and adorable animals to interact with and watching my girls do so is just so much fun. Upon arriving, we soon learned that three cows had been born that very day and in the barn were two of them. One lying down adjusting to life and the second was still covered in blood doing his very best to learn to stand up for the first time. My girls, and I, watched in amazement as this little guy worked so hard to get to his feet. Then out in the field we see another baby lying next to his mama. A buzz started among the workers and all of a sudden they were moving fast because they wanted to get the baby out of the field before he and mama got too bonded with each other. My brain realized why this was an important thing to do at a creamery where their livelihood relies on these cows producing milk, but my mama bear heart cried out at the cruelty of this! I watched in horror as a man in a van drove over and whisked the little baby out of the field. Visions of my own little babies being stolen out from under my nose while I lay in my hospital bed danced in my head and I had to control myself not too tell the man to get that little baby back to his mama. Just think about it, your baby taken from you before you even get a chance to love on it and then you find yourself strapped to a machine so they can take your milk!! Even worse, what to do we people do with that milk? Slap pictures of our own stolen babies right on the container!! Oh, it is just horrible when I think about it.

Luckily, before I could start making signs and protesting at the creamery we were distracted by the bottles arriving. The way it works is someone comes and places a half gallon jug with a nipple on top in front of each calf to be fed. Anyone who is there can just grab a bottle and have at it. Boy, do those little guys learn fast what those bottles are! They start sucking on anything and everything they can get their little mouths on at the sight of those bottles...people, strollers, my own nursing cover up, their neighbors face! It sure is a funny sight. The girls got right to work grabbing the bottles and holding on tight because those babies sure can suck! Girly's cow sucked so hard it collapsed the whole container and nipple (actually thinking back to my own early days of trying to nurse a baby hoover, maybe those mama cows have it good after all)! Peanut was a little timid to hold the bottle once she saw that you almost get pulled into the pen with the cow, but she watched as I held the bottle and she loved to scratch the cows behind the ears. Bug just giggled the whole time she held onto the bottle and the teeny one didn't know what to think of those cows, but her big eyes did not miss one thing that happened in the barn.

Another fun adventure completed on the list. I would say it was quite a wonderful experience and the girls had a great time. Although, I must admit I held onto my OWN baby very tightly on the way out in case those people got any ideas about MY milk, but thankfully we all made it back to the car. In fact, we even brought home a few extras with us that day. Just about twenty flies are now living happily ever after in my car feasting on all the crumbs the girls have dropped on the floor!

Strawberry Picking - Check!

Determined to get this summer started off on the right foot, the girls and I planned our strawberry picking adventure for the last day of school. School let out two hours early so as soon as they walked in the door we headed off to Butler's Orchard. We have been berry picking at Butler's for years now so the girls are almost professionals, but this time we brought along my sister and two nephews for the first time. Off course, doing anything with six kids in tow requires A LOT of preparation so before we could even begin we had to make sure that everyone was lotioned up and that water cups were full. The baby was sleeping so I lugged her car seat out onto the field and set her up with an umbrella. The only umbrella I had in my car was a small, broken one, but we made do and somehow managed to get the baby set up in the shade.
The kids all chose their containers and got to work. The teeny one immediately woke up and wanted out of the car seat so I then had to juggle the baby, the umbrella, a water cup, and a container. All the while, trying to take pictures of all these kids who looked so cute hard at work. Girly got right down to business and I am sure Butlers will be hiring her in the near future because she filled a container in no time at all. Bug was more interested in eating the strawberries, Peanut was looking for bugs, and the boys, being boys, were picking them and throwing them. Tired of lugging the baby around, I set her down in the container where she promptly grabbed a strawberry and took a huge bite that her little seven month old self was not prepared to chew. So I am then trying to fish the strawberry piece out of her clamped jaw while trying not to squish the container of strawberries. Finally, I gave up and just watched helplessly as the poor little thing gagged the strawberry down. Phew, she didn't choke. So that was a bad idea, back to lugging the baby around the field. Thankfully, me sister took pity on me and held the baby while I tried to take pictures of all the kiddies. After about ten minutes, we realized as we do every year that it is HOT strawberry picking. And to add to the fun this year, mosquitoes were eating us as we were trying to eat the strawberries. Fifteen minutes into the adventure we have two containers of strawberries, six hot and sweaty kids, and countless bug bites so we decide to head to the market for smoothies. All and all, I would say it was a fun, successful day. One item checked off the list, only about twenty more to go!

Our Summer List

I usually begin each summer with such high hopes. I will be the best mom ever. I will do tons of fun things with my kids. We will spend lots and lots of quality time together. I will make up for all those rushed, crazy mornings when we are trying to get out the door on time and it seems like the only sort of communication we have is me barking orders at them to get ready. I will make up for all those rushed, crazy nights when it seems like dinner, homework, bath, and bed are the only things on the agenda. Those always seem to be my hopes for the summer, but then summer always seems to slip away so quickly leaving me feeling empty when the first day of school descends upon us and I have to once again start throwing my children out the door for school. Oh sure, we do lots of fun things, but too often we trade the rushed, crazy mornings of trying to get ready for school for the rushed, crazy mornings of trying to get ready for swim lessons/camp/vacation bible school.
So, this summer I have vowed that it will be different. I will be a great mom, if not the best mom ever. I will do tons of fun things with my kids and we will spend lots and lots of quality time together. I know that in order for this to happen we needed some kind of organization and while we do need some kind of organization, I do not want things to be too structured. So, the girls and I have come up with a list, a list of all the fun things we want to do this summer. Seems like such a silly, simple thing to do but I am determined to complete this list. To add some motivation to completing the list I have decided to write about each item we check off and at the end of the summer the girls and I will make a photo book about all of the things we did together.
So here it is, the list:
1. Go to the zoo
2. Go strawberry picking
3. Go camping
4. Take a hike
5. Go for lots of bike rides
6. Go for lots of walks
7. Go blueberry picking
8. Go swimming
9. Find seashells and shark teeth
10. Paint pottery
11. Feed the baby cows
12. Complete a sewing project
13. Play in a waterfall
14. Slide down a wooden slide
15. Go flower picking
16. Go to the lake
17. Go fishing
18. Go to a car race
19. Go to a Keys game
20. Make playdough
21. Make a photo book
Ambitious I know, now lets hope we can pace ourselves and get these items checked off or we are going to have a REALLY busy labor day weekend!