Blueberry Picking

In honor of Blueberry Month…we went and picked blueberries at Papa Hank’s in the Sierra Nevada foothills just about a half hour away from our house. Our friend hunted them out as being one of the only organic blueberry farms near us and made a reservation for us. While we had a great time…it was quite small and not touristy, which has its benefits. They were very accommodating. We had two little ones with us who were sleeping and needed to eat when we first arrived for our reservation time. They waited while we got situated before taking us out into the field. Here were our two little ones, precious!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The blueberries were $5/lb. (which I felt like I should’ve paid for at least a half pound more because of how many Cooper ate while picking). They also sold blueberry plants which I may have to consider. Here’s Cooper below picking, and eating, and eating, and eating….     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s Sofie and Ethan, Cooper’s friends we went with.

 

We will definitely go back again! I think we’ll try going to a place called Patrick’s. It’s larger and accommodates families and children well (at least from what I hear).

A few pointers (at least from what we learned here):

• Wear close toed shoes – there are thistles.
• Dress for warm weather! We thought maybe because it was further up in the mountains it may be cooler? We were wrong! It was hot, hot hot!
• Don’t forget to bring your own buckets.

I think that’s all…we definitely recommend going blueberry picking. Cooper will be talking about it for days.

Macaroni Day

Fun, easy, short craft for Macaroni Day that proved to be a good fine motor skill craft. We simply attempted to string penne pasta onto a ribbon. If I had had a shoe lace, I honestly think Cooper could’ve done it himself! But, I did not. So we worked together and made a pasta necklace.

He was believe it or not…quite proud of his necklace accomplishment! Here he is wearing it at dinner.

And I couldn’t help but post one picture from our swimming adventures this afternoon at our friend Kelly’s clubhouse. What a little handsome fella I have!

National Postcard Day

We’re back into our Cool Summer Days calendar following about a week break. I finished putting together July’s activities and am ready to roll again! Today is National Postcard Day and I didn’t want to leave Grammy & Papa (my parents) out of the fun, so Cooper and I headed out to purchase and mail postcards to the grandparents. Little did I know it would send us on a goose chase!
We started off at our grocery store, none.
American Postal Center? Nope!
Hallmark…surely they will have ONE postcard, right? Zilch! They said to try Walgreens (and that I was the second person task for a postcard…hmm, anyone who has my calendar perhaps?).
None at Walgreens either. I was about to give up and head home to make my OWN postcard. But, the lady at Walgreens suggested Borders, which Cooper LOVES! So, I gave him a choice…home or book store. It was one of the first times he really truly made a legitimate decision. He said, “Book store!” very enthusiastically. So, off to Borders we went.
Success! And here he made his second “choice”. He picked out a horse postcard for Papa (by pointing and shouting, “Neigh!”) and a monster postcard for Grammy (by pointing and saying “Monster, Pop!” – which is one of those old school toys where the suction cup sticks to a round piece of plastic attached to a spring? Yeah, his has a monster on it which looks very similar to the postcard above). We hurried home, Cooper colored them, we hopped in our new wagon and went down to put them in the mailbox. Now we are just awaiting the fun surprise when Grammy & Papa get them in the mail.


What a fun, silly day to learn about postcards! Who knew they’d be so difficult to find?

Strawberry-Watermelon Slushie

I CAN’T be the only one who gets a GIANT watermelon only to wonder how our teeny tiny little family is going to eat the entire thing. I found this delicious recipe on a fun blog – Our Best Bites. Yum-o! I made it for some girlfriends and our kids who I had over for a play date, and again at our 4th of July party. They were a hit! And you can use the leftovers to make popsicles, too!

 Strawberry-Watermelon Slushie
Recipe from Taste of Home
2 cups cubed seedless watermelon
1 pint fresh strawberries, halved
1/3 C sugar
1/3 C fresh lemon juice
2-4 C ice cubes

In a blender, combine the watermelon, strawberries, sugar and lemon juice; cover and process on high until smooth. With blender running, gradually add ice cubes until desired consistency is reached.  Pour into chilled glasses and serve immediately.
Yield: 5-7 cups

And…as per my promise…I DID make this recipe and here are a few helpful tidbits:

• The ingredients are NOT set in stone…you can use more or less watermelon and strawberries.
• You can use the cute old lemon “jugs” with lemon juice from the store. They work fine and you don’t have to juice a lemon!
• I used 4 cups of ice each time.
• I’m considering making an adult beverage as well someday, but haven’t done it just yet.

Below is how much it yields and my son enjoying a taste!

His very own wagon…

As you could tell from our 4th pictures, Cooper was introduced to the wagon. He nearly broke into tears every time the wagon came to a halt at the thought of having to exit. So, the next morning, we loaded into the car with the grandparents to head to Target to get him his very own wagon. I must admit, I have come to appreciate it already as well. He is quite the little happy camper in his wagon. We walked down to have breakfast at Mimi’s and also ran a few errands while we were out and about.

I also love that Cooper wants to take a friend with him in the wagon almost every time….either his sock monkey, teddy bear, somebody! So fun. Look at him hard at work helping Papa put the wagon together. This was his reaction to Grammy and Papa driving away. So sad!Don’t fret! He recovered quickly. =)So, I’ve discovered…wagons are a great investment! Even if he only uses it to and from the mailboxes, he LOVES it! 

Happy 4th of July - 2010

Here was our brood this year for our 4th of July celebration. We had one other family that had to leave early, I didn’t feel like corralling everyone at that point to take a pic. We pretty much had hamburgers and hot dogs and let the kids play in the water in the backyard. The kids played so well together, it was nice and relaxing. Our neighbors also came over after dark to watch Ryan’s fireworks display. He was quite proud (and rightly so) of his accomplishments. He’s already looking forward to doing them again next year! Happy 4th! Here’s a smattering of pictures from the fun day.