Peaches!

There is a pick-your-own fruit orchard about an hour from where we live, and my brother & his fam went there last Saturday to get peaches, so I decided to be brave and take the kids with me to do the same this week.  It turned out to be a harder thing than I was expecting--but the kids were troopers!

Cons--the mosquitoes were HORRIBLE from the recent rains; it was hot; the kids were "done" with the experience when the box was not yet half-full.

Pros--we got a half-bushel of peaches which I turned into jam (my first time making it--yum!); we got out of the house and went somewhere new; the orchard workers gave us a ride in their golf/work cart back from the orchard to the office/house (this perked the kids right up--went from crying to smiling almost instantly :); and we ended the picking with a picnic on the lone picnic table that was sitting in the shade next to their office!  

Thank goodness it ended with that picnic, because even though the mosquitoes were awful & the kids were crying by the end of the picking, they remember the experience as "fun"!

They both fell asleep on the way home--Ella wearing her new favorite "bracelets" (baby teething rings we found in our closet last week), & Caleb holding the empty package of dried fruit he'd been snacking on.  These kids make me so happy :)

Best Birthday Week Start Ever.

I turned 31 on May 3rd. Wow, time doesn't slow for anyone. I almost have my first real job, too. ;) Just one more year. That'll be nice.

I really had a great week. Growing up with 6 siblings, it was fairly common to have 2 or 3 different family members have activities on your actual birthday which sometimes made it difficult to make the actual birthday special. So, my mom came up with the tradition of a birthday week. That way special things were done all week and birthdays that got overshadowed by other family obligations sometimes weren't anticlimactic. Sally has thankfully picked up the habit. It's pretty fun.

My birthday week kicked off with me coming home to Caleb, Ella, and Sally's drawings posted on the front door declaring "Happy Birthday, Dad!" to the whole neighborhood. When I walked in I was greeted by truly happily screaming children overjoyed to see me. Wow, talk about a good start to the week! They had no idea how awesome that made me feel. :) That was immediately followed by Caleb yelling and running to my bedroom, "Dad, come see your present!" which command I of course promptly obeyed knowing full well that Sally probably hadn't intended on giving me the gift until Thursday. (Haha! I love having kids! ;) That was a true assumption, but by the time I got in my bedroom Caleb was already lifting up the covers hanging around the bottom of the bed and trying to pull my present out. It was an exciting moment, especially for Caleb. Sally was smart enough to keep one present separate though (new game, "Bohnanza") to give me on my actual big day.

Here are some random pictures to spice up this post a bit.

 This is what I turned around to see on the way home from my brother's house on the night before Easter. Pretty great moment to see your kiddo's being best friends. :)

Shopping with Daddy is a bit different than shopping with Mommy. We tried everything on.      :)

Posts without pictures are kind of boring, aren't they? We'll have none of that here anymore. :D