Strawberry Festival

Did I even tell you about the Strawberry Festival yet, that happened back in May?  I think not!

Those were some pictures from a fancy friend and now here come mine…

I believe Eleonora was suffering from an ant bit toe, which wouldn’t be much for most people but she doesn’t do well with bites and stings, and since she’s so light her brothers were happy to tote her downtown in the wagon. 

Waiting for the candy to be tossed!

Oh boy, Caleb and the DCS band!

Josiah marched by with his trumpet and the high school band as well but I must have only got a video - no picture. Here we are reunited. As the paraders reach the end of the parade route, they mostly simply turn around and walk back through all the bystanders until they find their people. Rather annoying when it’s other people, but we were happy to have the boys back to watch the end of the parade with us. 

Strawberry cousins. 

The final length of the day’s parade - home again. 

Chris had fun (with a bit of stress thrown in for good measure) driving this float for his friend. 

All in all, we had a berry good time. (I got that quote from my resident English major.). And now I’m inspired to start some strawberry plants from seeds with the toilet paper method!

Early June

I do not even know what to show you!  Here are some pictures from earlier this month. The cousins catching some creatures from the creek in the Habs’ yard. 

Time for a little camp craft room refresh. 

This pic is from the end of last summer when we were feeling inspired. 

Here’s Caleb helping get the ball rolling on hanging out first bulletin board. 

Cousins at camp. 

We’ve spent a couple afternoons helping these ladies get cleaned out and organized for the new baby!

We had cousin Jonathan for Family Movie Night between camp and delivering him back home. His momma thought that might have been his first experience with a tuna fish sandwich. Ha!  We watched Narnia. 

The next day we went to his sister’s birthday party and Dave held a field day for all the party people at his middle school, which is just a minute or two from their house. Such fun!

Then back home with three extra cousins ready for a week of camp. 

E and I on the first day of Junior Week. She had a great time - this was her second year of overnight camp. 

Toilet Paper

I have been trying to be a good steward of my time this summer and stay off my online time-wasters.  I’ve been doing a pretty good job, and I decided that educational gardening YouTube videos would be allowed and I found this little bearded man in suspenders giving directions for sprouting seeds on toilet paper of all things. 

Well there’s not a whole lot that I enjoy more than watching seeds sprout in gardening trays of soil in the spring, so I thought seeing the entire process without any of that pesky dirt blocking my view would be even more magical. 

And so far the experience has not disappointed!

Look at that adorable, fuzzy little root!

They’re on the dryer right inside those windows so I can stare at them while I watch my garden. Double feature. 

It’s time to move some of those zinnias to their new home. 

These were mostly old seeds, not talking found in an Egyptian pyramid old, but probably 5-10 years old, so I didn’t know how many would sprout, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised. 

This project was also inspired because Caleb tried direct sowing peppers in the garden and nary a one came up. Then Eleonora and I started another batch of pepper seeds in a little container of soil and only one sprouted, and not until after we started this experiment. There’s baaaarely something starting to happen with the jalapeños. 

So there you have it. My favorite spot to spend a few minutes when I hop out of bed in the morning!  Happy summer!

Climbing

Over the River and Through the Woods

Have you ever seen such lovely, sweet nonagenarians in all your days?