Catch up

I have been a little lax when it comes to posting lately and I blame it on the summer, the presence of my husband (as a teacher, he has two months of holidays) and the resulting pickup in activity. You see, when Dave is around throughout the day the house simultaneously shifts into lower and higher gears. We all become a little more relaxed but we also start to attack the to-do lists and the fun activity lists. It has also been a bit of a wet summer without any significant stretch of hot and sunny weather. Thus, Dave's alternate activity of helping his dad with the hay has yet to happen. In fact, he begins each day with an on-line weather check only to be disappointed again at the absence of good hay weather. Thus, we have been painting bedrooms, visiting friends and family, waiting to do hay, catching up on reading, playing chess, waiting to do hay, walking the dog, running, biking, waiting to do hay, swimming and on and on. But, I decided that it was high time that I chronicled some of this summertime fun. So, I begin with a picture of our youngest: a shot that illustrates that Joe's shoe fetish extends to all foot and legwear. Last Monday we went strawberry picking for the first time as a family. We found a berry farm that is also family friendly and we headed out for the afternoon. We began with a wagon ride out to the strawberry patch. Yes, Jacob is carrying a bucket with holes for placing shapes in. We had a decided lack of buckets around the house and I threw this one together with a milk bag so that the strawberries wouldn't fall out. Dave merely shook his head at me.

Ben was very excited by the tractor ride as he is by the presence of any farm implements or heavy equipment.

Ben proved to be a bit of a moocher when it came to berry picking. He picked a few on his own but mostly relied upon the goodness of his sister's heart. Unfortunately, he doesn't have the same willingness to share as his twin siblings and thus refused to distribute any of his horde. We have to work on this with Ben...

Joseph spent the majority of his time cruising from bucket to bucket illicitly eating the fruits of our labour. After each reprimand he would simply move on to the next family member.

Ben being territorial. Watch out for three-year olds with Nemo buckets.

Jacob was desperate to win his self-initiated strawberry picking contest. He is deeply motivated by any competition.

Hannah had a sibling in tow at all times as she imparted her kindness, knowledge and strawberries.

Note the tears. He has just been reprimanded for eating strawberries and had pulled out the tears as his first line of attack.

His second line of attack was to maintain his reprimander's eye contact while slowing placing his hand in the bucket and removing a berry. He would then place it in his mouth as he maintained eye contact and slowly chew while firmly believing that his parents had been hoodwinked.

I thought that one picture of our family labouring together would be welcome. As you can see, Joseph is taking advantage of the camera distraction to steal more berries.

Dave eventually resorted to arm imprisonment to curtail the berry thief.

And one picture to prove that I was indeed present.

And the next day the family worked together to de-stem (the technical term escapes me) the berries, place them in freezer bags and store them away. We picked 24 litres which amounted to 5 large freezer bags and one baby with no bowel issues.

The treasure trove.

Because some toddlers never learn. Alternate title: Because some mommies never learn.