Berry Season

I thought of titling this post something like "berry fun" or "berry busy Saturday" but Strawberry Shortcake's voice in my head was just too much. I couldn't do it. Saturday we went raspberry picking at our favorite place out in Carnation - Harvold Farms. If you're in the area, you've got to go! It's a simple, family run u-pick farm with the cheapest and absolute best berries around. Huge juicy raspberries ripened in the sun, or at least Seattle's version of sun. The kids were super excited, but as usual, ran out of steam about 20 minutes into it. They forget every year how much they don't like the actual carrying out of our tradition. But Derek and I can't get enough - berries, that is. I don't know what it is about being at the farm, but we start getting this urgency to pick more and more. 2 boxes full pales in comparison to the Russian families all around us with 4-5 crates of the perfect fruit. Their kids were even helping!! Anyway, our own kids were crying and our ward activity was waiting, so we stopped ourselves at 22 pounds and called it a day.


The picture above is actually of our very own raspberries, plants given to us by a friend in the ward in the spring. We also have blueberries and we would have had strawberries if that darn wild rabbit hadn't snuck into our backyard every morning to eat the ripest ones. Grrrrr.... Berries seem to be the best form of gardening for us. Our tomatoes finally flowered, but I think there's little hope of veggies at our house this year.



MMMmmmmmm....



Carver even helped awhile. He also tried to run away, pull leaves off the plants and pick the greenest berries. Why were Derek and I so excited about this crazy family outing?!



Our spoils. What seems like so little in the field always turns out to be an incredible amount of fruit and WORK. The weight of them in the box and the fact that they are completely ripe makes for quite a bit of urgency to do something with them. After we got the kids to bed on Saturday, we literally opened up our new canner, read the instructions and dove in to jam. Lots of it. 3 batches of the bottled version, a double batch of freezer jam and trays and trays of frozen berries to be tossed in zip-locks after they were hard. We worked til midnight, but got it all done. One LONG night, one BIG mess, but so much to show for it. 24 jars of bottled jam, 6 ziplocks, 10 freezer jams. It was so satisfying to do it ourselves, but between buying the canner, the berries, the jars and pectin, this jam was EXPENSIVE! Next year the investment will have already been made and it'll seem nice and frugal, right?


I don't know how we always end up with these flattering pictures of myself. I do crazy things with my neck and chin in pictures. I try to tell myself that this isn't how I REALLY look. :)


I realized part way into the project that we didn't have the special tongs for lifting jars out of the canner. Hmmm.... a little ingenuity and a trip to the tool box and we were back in business! Thanks, Derek!



Wrapping up. Oh, we were exhausted. But, like the kids, we'll forget how hard it really is and we'll be excited to do it again next year. I think I'm already looking forward to it...

What little boys do best

This weekend has been action packed with Carver mischief. Sometimes I really wonder if any of us will survive this boy. Friday morning I was cleaning bathrooms upstairs, left Carver unattended with a movie 5 minutes too long. I came down to this:



I never did find the lid to this black marker, but the good news is that our microfiber couch lives up to its reputation and EVERYTHING cleans out of it. And thank goodness it wasn't a Sharpie - just a washable Crayola. Whew!

Then on Saturday, Derek was working on yet another segment of the sidewalk along the side of our house when I went to ward temple night. He lost track of Carver and found him on the wet concrete. What perfect little footprints! It was too late to smooth them out and I suspect even Derek recognized how adorable they are. I hope potential homebuyers think so, too, when it's time to sell!



Sunday morning Derek and I slept in and woke up to Ellie knocking on our door. I worried that Grace was going to wake up (she did), but Ellie was totally justified. Carver's door hadn't been closed that night and he came downstairs when he woke up, helped himself to key lime yogurt and smeared it all over the family room. I didn't take a picture of this one. But the yogurt lid was in the entry way, the container by the window next to the couch. There were splatters on the rug, on the carpet, on the couch, on a blanket - not to mention all over Carver and his shirt. He was finger painting with it on the window when we came down. Talk about a jaw-dropping sight for first thing in the morning!! We sent the girls up to play with him in his room after I got him cleaned up and all the yogurt came out. But I'm sure if you were to step on our rug in just the right place you could still smell key lime. I guess it could be worse, right?

SAME DAY, after church, Carver got a hold of a ball point pen and before we knew it, he'd attacked the exact same spot on the couch:



This was a little trickier to get out. After an testing in an inconspicuous spot, we used Resolve carpet cleaner because it's what we had around. It worked! Yet another victory for the microfiber! :)

So much for cleaning bathrooms while he "watches" a movie or thinking I can turn my back for a second! Our fridge lock broke yesterday and I'm paranoid he's going to take advantage of our current Achilles' heel and run around with Hershey's syrup (he likes to suck on the treasured treat - anyone want some chocolate milk at our house?!). Little boys keep you on your toes! And to think, this is the same little boy I'm selflessly taking swimming lessons with (mom & tot) for the next two weeks! Doesn't he know he owes me big for that one?!

Portland or bust!

I am so proud of Derek and his dad! They are part of the illustrious group of one day riders who biked in the STP (Seattle To Portland) on Saturday. (For most, it's a two day race finishing Sunday afternoon.) I dropped them off at 0'dark thirty in the U-district of Seattle Saturday morning, came home for one more quick hour of sleep. Then I hung around with Grandma and Hailey and the kiddos until we got the call from Derek in Centralia that meant they were half way there. They had made GREAT time! Hailey, Lydia, Grace and I drove down to my parents to head to the finish line. Grandma stayed behind with the little boys and Ellie - talk about a lifesaver!! It was so much fun to see riders on a trail next to the freeway at one point and to be at the finish line in a park downtown Portland. There were banners and booths, and of course TONS of bikers (9500 in the race, about 25% one-day riders) and families and friends. Lydia made a great poster for her dad at the REI booth. She thought it was really exciting at first, but a little boring to wait.



They blew bubbles and rang a cow bell with each approaching group and even announced the name of each rider. It was super exciting! I realized it might be how men feel about their wives after labor and delivery - "That was so great and totally worth it. Let's do this again soon!" Because I'm all pumped for more races like this! It even made me want to get into cycling and do it together someday. Now THAT'S crazy!



And check out the lines for the portable showers. click to see it in better detail, but the "line" on the right is for the women. For once it's the men who have to wait!!

Disneyland

We had a blast in California over the 4th. We packed Disneyland into one full day, wore the kids out and managed not to get sunburned or stuck in dreadful lines. Hurray for the Fastpasss! A couple favorite moments were when Lydia said as we were leaving Downtown Disney the next morning, "Disneyland really is a place where all your dreams come true." Carver's favorite rides were Pirates of the Caribbean (he kept saying, wow... WOW at EVERYTHING). Ellie's favorite part was meeting the princesses, Lydia's favorite was Thunder Mt. Railroad. I loved going on Splash Mt. with Derek and the girls, doing Pirates with just Derek, Carver and Grace, watching the parade down Main Street and then staying to watch the fireworks with Lydia and auntie Hailey. Just BEING there together was wonderful - spending time with Derek's sisters and their families, his parents - it really did feel like a magical day!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today I bought cherries at Safeway, but they were not your average grocery store produce. They were sweet and juicy and full of amazing flavor, every single beautiful cherry. They took me back to Paris with my mom, a full 9 years ago. We bought cherries at a fruit stand on the street and asked for a kilo, however much that is. Turns out that's a LOT of cherries! We bought brie and another cheese at a fromagerie and lived on crackers, cheese and cherries that afternoon. Today's my mom's birthday it's an appropriate day to reminisce. Cherries always make me think of her. I forced my kids to try the cherries today, knowing that fruit this good isn't easy to come by and it's not worth making them try mediocre new foods. They were all good sports, Carver and Ellie really loved them. And at least no one gagged. As I pitted each cherry for my children, I was filled with the richness of motherhood, my love for my mom, memories of traveling together in Europe that summer and so many other happy memories that combine to be a great friendship. My kids thought they were just tasting cherries, but I felt like I was passing on so much more - a piece of the love I share with my mom.

Ellie's big day

Ellie's birthday has the misfortune of being the day before the 4th of July and, therefore, the ideal time for family reunions and travel. But that also means a big time party! We were in California this year (pics to follow, but Ellie's big day comes first!) and celebrated with Granddaddy and Grandma Baskett, aunts and uncles and cousins galore. Okay, our family isn't actually that big. But 2 great grandparents, 2 grandparents, 2 aunts, 2 uncles, 3 first cousins, 2 second cousins, and 2 first cousins once removed are 15 relatives more than usual! :)

We had DEE-licious BBQ pork, mexican style and then her pick of chocolate cupcakes and chocolate ice cream. We got to swim like crazy all afternoon and she was so proud to learn how to move around the pool on her own with her water wings. She absolutely would NOT let me take her picture, though. Is she 5 or maybe 15?



I love that Ellie REALLY wanted this stuffed graduation penguin from Target. She saw it one day in passing and it was truly love at first site. So when I saw it marked down another time, I picked it up for her on the sly and she was tickled to open it on her big day. She also got LOADS of Fancy Nancy stuff, which came out just in time for her birthday. She is the fanciest one in our family for sure and we just love her strong will and most convincing "nice voice" I've ever heard. She keeps us laughing with her funny Ellie-isms and can't wait for her to take on kindergarten this fall.