The fruits of our labor

You can see the fruit of our labor from the Blackberry farm here on my recipe blog!

We went back since The Sky Mom and her kids were in town. We made it a large family affair. There were 11 of us. The berries were even bigger and better the 2nd time around!! I just froze 3 pounds of berries.Here's some more pics.

Country Girl wannna be

One of my wishes is that I lived on a farm. With lots of homegrown fruit and vegetable trees and plants. So if you don't have it - you must go visit. Thats what we did yesterday. We took a short 35-40 minute drive with some friends to the most beautiful farm with rows upon rows of blackberries. We had the best time picking them. Rene' just kept eating them out of everyone's bucket while they were picking. It was the cutest thing. The whole experience made me want to live on a farm even more. Some day...

These 2 are definitely my kids - they had as much fun as I did

Joanna with Jax and Jonas

The biggest, plumpest, ones were way back in the middle of the bush

Now that is a blackberry picking hand

Happy 4th of July

This is my absolute least favorite holiday. So I started a new tradition. We had breakfast as an extended family including my mom, my brother and his wife, my grandma and my aunt and uncle. We feasted on homemade cinnamon rolls, egg casserole, fruit, and coffee and juice. And now everyone is off to buy GeeGee (my 89 year old grandma) a new TV and somehow I have scored being home by myself with the napping baby. Happy 4th of July!!

Aunt Linda and Uncle Lewis (when they pulled up, Zak said "Yea, Aunt Lewis is here")

Breakfast outside

Grandma Paula and Paige

857 ways to get in the water this summer

Okay, well, its really like 5. But I feel like we have been in almost every kind of water activity there is in the past 2 weeks. First we'll start with the spray grounds. If you don't know what it is, it is sheer brilliance. And the fact that a new one was built just a couple of miles from my home is icing on the cake. It is an area of a park that has all kinds of water features, spraying out water and the kids just run and play in them. Its great when you have little ones who you don't want to have to worry about drowning. Except, I found the day cares discovered my little haven. And it wasn't such a haven this week. Next is of course the public swimming pool. I'm so happy they are getting creative and making it all a whole lot more small child friendly. Lots of shallow water, etc. Then there is the baby pool and slip and slide in our backyard. When we aren't up to going anywhere, that's where you'll find us. And finally one of our friends has a metal watering trough turned swimming pool. Yes I'm serious and my kids love it.

Now, I'm pretty much summered out so bring on the fall weather, pumpkins, and sweatshirts.

A woman can dream.

I think we just had homeschool in the van.

Zak: Mom, I just want to see and hold some baby birds
Me: Well, we can only look at them because if we touch them, then they'll have human smell and their mom will abandon them.
Zak: What does abandon mean?
Me: to leave
Zak: Oh, I thought it meant kill.

Zak: Mom, if a balloon goes up in the air does it go into outer space?
Me: No, when it gets to the top of the atmosphere its is so hot it will pop.
Zak: Then what happens to the pieces?
Me: I guess they float back down to earth.
Zak: Why haven't I seen that before?
Me: I don't know honey.
Zak: Well when astronauts go into space, they don't get burned up.
Me: That's because there is a fireproof coating on the space shuttle so that won't happen

Zak: Why is my swimsuit waterproof?
Me: It's not, it just won't get ruined in water. Waterproof means water can't get in it or just rolls off.
Zak: I want lots of waterproof stuff

Paige turns 3!

Paige turned 3 on Wed. I can't believe it. We headed out to Aunt Linda's farm where cousin Todd was having a birthday too. We had a dual party. Here's some pics. I have to give credit to Karen for making the adoreable dresses for my girls. Check out her store on Etsy.

Licking the beaters of birthday frosting

The look Rene' always has on her face

Getting ready to cookout

New butterfly wings

Todd and the kids

Some of the guests

A break from swimming for presents

Braum Family Farm tour

It was the first full day with family in town and we headed to the Braum Family Farm and Plant to see how they make and package our milk, ice cream and yogurt. Here are a few pics and I'll leave you with a few facts.

• 24-36 hours after a cow is milked, the milk is packaged and on the truck headed to your local Braum's store.
• Braums milk has 50% more calcium than other brands of milk due to some patented process they do through a bunch of pipes. (I kindof missed this)
• They rotate their flavors ever 4-6 days.
• We saw a new flavor on the first day of production - fried ice cream. It should be in stores in a few days. We also saw them package Egg Nog and Butter Brickle ice cream.
• They are building a beef herd now so they can sell their own beef too.

If you click on the pics, you can see them much larger.