Blueberry Picking

It's one of the highlights of my year!

Blueberry picking is so easy and fun. There are no thorns and the trees are perfect height. You don't need a ladder and you aren't bending down the whole time. And with the berries not being sprayed you can even eat a few while you're picking. Great motivation for the littles. The babies just hang out under the trees and wait for some to drop.

Each year I need to pick more due to the size of our family growing as a whole in number, but also because each kid is consuming more each year too.

But, with each new year the older kids are able to pick more than the last. It's become quite a team effort. When we've got berries in March, they will start to understand just how well hard work can pay off!

Apparently he thinks I've worked him a little too hard. Or possibly that he's waiting for one to fall into his mouth!



YUM!

Evening at the Park

Annabelle's new face that is simply adorable! It's so new it doesn't even have a nickname yet. That will come soon, I'm sure.


Keeping close tabs on the boys.

A Rainbow 1st Birthday Party

Annabelle celebrated her first birthday with her best friend Grayson earlier this month. Their due dates were a day apart, but he was born on the 5th and she was born on the 22nd. So, they compromised and celebrated their birthdays on the 11th. We had a rainbow themed party.











And here begin the adorable cake eating shots:





Grayson was such a gentleman. When he realized he was eating way more than his share of the cake, he decided to offer some to Annabelle.

The cake after we called it quits. They fell right in line with the typical boy/girl stereotypes on this one.

She hadn't quite had enough. She wanted just another nibble of Daddy's cupcake.

And then it was off to play in the water.


We couldn't have asked for a better day to celebrate these two blessings we've been entrusted with.

HM SCL

When we parked our van in Richmond for our first homeschool convention this was one of the very first vans we saw in the parking lot! I just had to laugh.

And then of course, take a picture.

We are pretty big advocates for homeschooling, but at that moment, I realized we were now surrounded by the big dogs!

Tracking Our Garden Growth

Taken April 23

Taken June 8

Our First Crop

Samuel wanted to grow radishes desperately in our garden. Not sure why. He doesn't even love radishes all that much. But, of course, I let him give it a go. We planted the seeds way back in April and this is the only one we were able to harvest. He was beyond thrilled. Kids are so easy to please. He took one bite and said I could have the rest... Haha!

So much joy has come from our garden. We have loved spending time together tending to it. Now we're hoping for some tasty rewards for all our hard work!

Growing Wheat Grass

Juicing wheatgrass or having it in smoothies has been proven to be very healthy for you. And since we have a ton of wheat that we grind I decided to soak it and see if it would grow.... and boy did it... in just a few hours.


This first picture is around 10am and the second is around 2pm. Insane. It's the perfect thing for kids to grow because they can watch it grow so fast and then we can eat it. They just pull out a few stems and chomp away on the nutritional goodness.

Memorial Day Fun

Annabelle loves the splash park. But, she really loves the splash park with Daddy! Andy never hesitates to get right in there with the kiddos. I love seeing how unashamed he is with his love for them.





And, that concludes most of my pictures for May. Phew!

My Sous Chef

She already loves helping out with cooking and the dishes...


Now, if I could only get her to make these donuts on a weekly basis, we'd be good!

Cartwheels and Custard

Sam had his show day at The Little Gym last month. We were amazed at how much he had improved since the last show. This class has been so good for him.




Gigi treated us all to some frozen custard afterwards. Now Joe wants to join The Little Gym... I wonder why!