Summertime fun

We've been busy around here with summertime activities...one of which is making strawberry jam. We intended to go strawberry picking, which means that cute pictures of us in the strawberry patch would have been inserted here. :) However, the strawberry patch was closed because of the heat on the day we wanted to pick. So, my mom picked up a flat of berries for us a one of the local produce markets. That made it much easier than doing the actual picking!



I found a willing berry masher/smasher in Ethan. He was bored with helping me with the rest of the process since I made him stand so far back to make sure that he wouldn't get splattered with the boiling jam mixture. I unfortunately did not take my own advice and have a blistered thumb to show for it. I was using a ladle to fill the jars and poured the jam all over my thumb and down the side of the jar. No pictures of that! The end result of yummy jam was worth it--and the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were very good that day! Next task...strawberry pie. Now, who will help me eat the pie?

The boys have also been busy playing outside. The sandbox has provided hours of entertainment, though the bathtub is definitely showing signs of heavy use! I may have to start doing "before sandbox" and "after sandbox" pictures just to show how dirty these boys can get...but they love every minute of it!



Micah has progressed beyond eating the sand, so I no longer have to leave his pacifier in his mouth. He now likes to throw the sand and generally cannot be deterred. I try to "redirect" him by giving him a shovel, but he just uses the shovel to throw the sand. Once he's done throwing the sand, he's happy to be able to play trucks and digging like his big brother does. He enjoys himself so much that he is VERY mad when I get him out of the sandbox.



Ethan is my water boy. He loves to have the pool filled up, even though the pool is too small for him. He's happy just jumping in and out of it and splashing the water around. He found all kinds of seashells (aka rocks) to put in the water and happily helped me water all of my flowers when we were done using the pool. At first I thought that we could leave the water for another day...but then I remembered that my two boys had been playing in it all afternoon...it was pretty gross and the flowers needed a drink anyway!