Strawberry Pickin'

We wanted to make home made strawberry jam so our first stop was the strawberry fields! It was a rainy dreary day but a little mud didn't hurt us. We were able to get enough to make a huge batch of freezer strawberry jam. 28 jars to be exact! I realized why home made jam tastes so good.....it is FULL of sugar! Ha

The kids helped us wash, cut up and smash the strawberries and now we have a stash of jam in our freezer that will last us a while....well, we hope! It goes quick!

Happy 8th Birthday, Sean!

Sean's personality has shown through since he was a very young child. He is a kind and gentle boy. He is a great listener and is genuinely concerned about others. The common theme I hear from all his teachers is that he loves to help. He doesn't do it for recognition or credit but just because he wants to. He is a smart kid in school but also has great social skills and is able to have conversations with adults with ease. His background knowledge on all things science (animals/dinosaurs/etc.) is impressive. He is a sponge when it comes to learning and he remembers things he hears and uses his knowledge in future conversations or situations. He makes us so proud!

Since his birthday fell on a Saturday, he started it off with his final soccer game of the season, and then we enjoyed a family day together with the grandparents (both sets and Aunt Alison and RJ). Nana and Poppi brought his favorite (ok--its my favorite) home made BBQ and we ate a delicious chocolate cake followed by a bon fire around the fire pit. What a wonderful day with family to celebrate our special guy!

Sean's 8th Birthday Party

 Sean's birthday party this year was another success! He chose to have a movie night party to watch the newest Star Wars movie. Though all the boys had seen the movie already, they did enjoy watching it (and reciting the lines/fight scenes) as they watched. They enjoyed a candy "bar" with all of Sean's favorites to choose from and then pizza and cupcakes. They got a little rowdy downstairs in the basement but they all really had a great time and Sean loved every minute.

Rugged Maniac 5K

A close friend suggested that a few of us do the Rugged Maniac 5K race. At first I wasn't really that into the idea but I went along with it for the good of the group. I honestly had no idea how much fun it would be. I laughed and smiled the whole entire race. You get covered in mud from about 30 seconds into the race so once you are covered you really don't care about rolling around in it or army crawling through mud puddles. The race took a long time to do because you couldn't really run along the way, the rain really made the course one big mud puddle. This prevented us from running but not from laughing as someone was falling in the mud about every 2 minutes. It was a blast and after about 3 showers I was clean again!