For our final adventure with the organized week o' fun activity group, we visited a local orchard for blueberry picking, a "trolley" ride around the farm, and playtime on the giant slides!  We were worried the day's plan would get rained out but thankfully, the weather held and actually wasn't as hot as it could've been.

We were the first to arrive.  I am sure you are SHOCKED to hear that B made a beeline for the display of flavored items:


Our tour guide led us to a section of blueberry plants just for our group and not for the "regular" people who came to pick:


I think the one on the left might be taking a sampling break while the one on the right hunts a few berries...which he decreed to be "delicious" and "amazing"!!  


Filling her container....and freaking me out with that left foot position!  ;-)


Boarding the trolley for the farm tour!


Yet another entry for the future rehearsal dinner slideshow of Katie and B-- see first one here:


Miss C tried to give Emily (Katie's sister) some snuggles, too:


After the ride?  GIANT SLIDES!


B getting ready to go down one of the smaller ones:


Us at the top of that same one before flying down!


We are so happy to have been included in all these adventures planned by our very active group of new friends!  Can't wait to see what the 2014 version of "Mommy Camp" brings!

Yesterday's adventure with the gang was to a state park about an hour north of us where we found a wonderful lake/beach area for swimming!   I actually can't wait to go back to this place-- kids in safety seats are free so it was only $3 to enter the massive park area that also boasts all kinds of trails, a waterfall, boats to rent, etc.  So beautiful!

The kids couldn't get enough of the water.....you know, until they turn purple as they do.  (I wish I could give them some of my fat to help warm them up.)   I could really only take pics at the beginning because I went with with them to make sure they were safe.

Getting ready to run in the water:


If you look just behind and to the right of the blue noodle boy, you'll see a rope/buoy line.  B was able to touch the bottom all the way to that point and had SO much fun splashing all around!


It kinda looks like I photoshopped a bit o' Baywatch in the background, but no-- they're legit!


After about an hour or so in and out of the water, I got them dressed and they played on the playground just off the beach for a bit.  Such a fun day with friends (who were there...just not pictured)!!

We went with a group yesterday to tour a local creamery.   It was quite the adventure!

All the kids:


The B-man matching one of the MANY tractors:


Up close and personal with the bovine crowd:


This girl is never happier than when a forward-facing camera is on her!

A couple of years ago, young Mr. B wouldn't even go into an animal barn because it was too smelly.  Yesterday, he couldn't get enough of petting all the baby calves:


The end of the tour?  Free ice cream!!  B-man chose Grasshopper; I went with Coconut Joy, and I got Blueberry Swirl for the little lady.  You can see, however, that she went straight for the "WHITE!" ice cream instead:

A couple of Fridays ago, our former neighbors came to play.  The man of their house was working late (which we, obviously, understand) so they trekked over for a visit.  After playing inside for a while, and before we went to grab some grub, we went out for a walk.  Miss C was either lazy or wanted to be like the other girl in the party (not-so-baby Emilia...about to turn 1!), and we even managed to get both of them to look at the camera!


While we were the ones who moved away last summer, it was only a 25 minute journey.  They, however, are about to move several hours north and we are so bummed about it!    Our neighbor across the street in this house is showing some promise by bringing us brownies twice after we got their mail, but there's just nothing like having dear friends just a yard away!  ;-)

As far as weekends go, ours was pretty uneventful but we still managed to have food and frolic!

Saturday afternoon yard play:


Not taking her eyes off her Hello Kitty friend (in the foreground) who joined us (in homage to her shirt) at a Mexican restaurant:


The BG enjoying some of the tastiest Mexican food we've had in a long time-- hooray for finding a fab local spot!

Sunday afternoon after the BG and the B-man spent a few hours at school getting ready for this week's Youth Camp, I dropped Miss C off with them at a new-to-us park and came back to find them enjoying the adaptive swings:

Where did I go, you wonder?  Oh, you know-- just to the stand-alone Dairy Queen (a rarity in these parts) that I've been meaning to visit for the entire past year:

I did some swinging myself and-- no kidding--took this picture mid-swing of B taking off into the surrounding area.  Pretty sure it was the most gorgeous swinging scenery I've ever seen!  

I don't know how many of you make pizza dough, but if you use regular yeast, you might have wrestled with the dough shrinking back every time you roll it.  For someone like myself who is already not so skilled in physical labor/dexterous activities, it is a very frustrating experience to try over and over to roll it into a decent size and have it not stay!!!  Problem solved with this special yeast--  highly recommend!


We've kinda settled into a family tradition of making pizza on Friday nights.   I'm still using this recipe (with some white whole wheat flour mixed with regular flour because then it's healthy.  HA HA HA) and have finally mastered the technique of the double-bake to get the crust to an acceptable balance of chewy and crispy.  Well....I guess I shouldn't use the word "master" since, um, I still can't get it to be round:

Our standards are cheese, (turkey) pepperoni, BBQ chicken, and Hawaiian, as pictured above.  The recipe makes more dough than can fit on our pizza stone, so I always pinch off a portion of the dough to make a separate cheese pizza and then do a deconstructed dinner for the kiddies:


HAPPY FRIDAY!!

First there was this (February 2008):


Then there was this (January 2011):


And now there is this (June 2013):

Of course, there was also this:

But that's okay, because a couple years ago, there was this:

I was so startled yesterday when I was getting B in the car to go to VBS and noticed something strange under a tree on the far side of the front yard:


I called for the BG, busy chopping wood in the backyard--not even kidding--and he assured me "that's what fawns do" and the teeny deer would be okay.  Later in the day when the BG left to go to the weight room, he found the fawn right up against the house in the front flower bed and watched it struggle mightily to its little stick legs and walk off to the side yard.   Here's hoping it was reunited with its mother shortly thereafter!

We continue to enjoy so much our little piece of "rurality" right in the midst of a major metropolis!

...the little sister will have all kinds of fun!

The B-man started a week of VBS yesterday.  The theme is Kingdom Rock and the church's decorations were quite appropriate:



C's exotic wardrobe addition yesterday morning involved a pair of very subdued piggie socks she found in my room:


Clearly, said socks made her feel like a fashionista who needed some paparazzi because she really got into posing for the front-facing camera!   I tried to match her expressions:



Finally realized my bulbous eyes are way too round for hers so I managed to squint 'em down!!


(I have no idea why the borders on those 3 showed up so thick but I'm just gonna leave it....)

The BG had two rounds of spring passing league games yesterday so he was gone for several hours in the AM and then several hours again in the late PM.  Because of all that, I determined it was a stay-at-home kind of day and dressed the kids appropriately in casual "grubbies"-- for Miss C, that meant a T-shirt and leggings.

At some point in the afternoon, the other 3 of us were hanging out in the living room when we heard some clop-clop-clopping.  And this is what came around the corner:

Anne & Adam might not have named their baby girl right away, but she didn't turn into a he named Evan Daniel.  You can imagine the confusion when the clothes I sent from Gymboree arrived at their house with this note:

Somewhere out there, some Gymboree gift recipients are wondering just who the crazy lady is who praaaaabably wrote all kinds of inside jokes in the congratulatory card because, I don't know about you, but Arlene Pattsel doesn't play the clarinet very well and is coming apart at the seams.  Thank goodness she is a really good knife (or is it a fork?).

And if you are now confused, you are in the same boat as Evan Daniel's parents.

The mother of Miss Elliott Suzanna (aka Ellie), however, knows JUST what I mean!   :-)

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!

PS:  The 5-minute storm that blew through here yesterday afternoon wasn't playing around.  We lost power for 4 hours but hey, at least we know the generator works!  Hooray!  Thanks again to Opa and Grammie for the wonderful gift of backup power!!!

We found ourselves yesterday with an unexpectedly unscheduled day.  What else to do with it than spend time at "The Place Where Dreams Come True"??  (Yes, Jill C, I'm talking about WEGMANS!!)

First up?  A wee lunch on the 2nd floor in the Market Cafe, complete with a kids area playing cartoons.  (There's also a train table just out of the picture as well as some mini tables for kiddies to sit and eat.)


Apparently she was too entranced by Sprout to look at me:


Look who came to join us!!


Such a smiley little Olive!!

(Fun fact:  she's wearing the onesie that I first bought for our second child before we even knew she was a SHE.  Here's Miss C wearing it almost exactly 2 years ago!!)

For you locals with kids, be sure to hit up the bonsai/mini tree stand near the floral department.  There's always a spray bottle for watering, which is a fave activity of the B-man...


...as is, of course, sniffing all the gum in the checkout aisle:

Finally, I'd like to give a big shout-out to Eric's parents for giving birth to him on June 12th so I could feel completely justified in treating myself to some Ultimate Chocolate Cake "in honor of" his birthday yesterday!!  HA HA HA!