Graduation Times Three

Sunday morning I made one batch of old fashioned Strawberry Rhubarb jam and one batch of Strawberry Jam with pectin.  It did not make much of a dent in the eight quarts we had to do something with.  And I made a blueberry crumble for the graduation party we were going to in the afternoon.  The family has three graduates this year:  Kaila, Klaudia and Aaron. I used to call Aaron pumpkin butt when he was about three years old.  He is Eli's older brother.  Klaudia is my cousin DiAnn's youngest and Kaila is her step daughter.  We are very proud of our graduates and there was a big family party for them at DiAnn's.   

Baylor was really shy for about the first hour even though he has been there several times before.  It was not until I started him playing badminton.  I taught him the basics of hitting the shuttlecock and then the other kids took over playing with him.  He held his own and was playing with middle schoolers to college kids.  And it was wonderful that all of them played fair with him and never made him feel like a preschooler.  No one plays for points so a miss does not matter.  He learned to serve it rather well and even some of the kids told him he was doing really good.  

For some reason he was not a fan of being on Eli's shoulders but I am glad Eli still has fun with Baylor.  

My little man just kept going and going.  It was awesome!!  

He also played with Paisley who is three and they watched Frozen together putting their arms around each other at times.  They played in the sand box together and had fun.  We all did.  And half way home he was out!!  It was a good day when you crash on the way home.

Strawberries and S'Mores

Saturday morning I hauled Baylor out of the house to pick strawberries at Oak Grove.  Of course it was the worst idea I ever had and he was bored after picking about a dozen berries. Most of which were white.  He would pick them and ask, is this a good one?  I suggested he check it first before picking it so it would not be wasted.  He will learn!  

The field was fairly picked over by the time we arrived but a nice family pointed me to a good row.  I was able to fill two four quart baskets. At $9.00 a basket, I was more than happy to do the work.  In their store the strawberries were $5.25 a quart so it really was a good deal!!  

Can't you just taste them?

After picking we went to the store to pay for our berries and treat ourselves to ice cream.  Baylor picked lime mint in a milk shake and I picked a split cone of chocolate divine and pistachio.  Yum loved his milkshake but also loved half of my cone.  I love that he picks unusual flavors for kids and loves them.  

After we got home Baylor asked the girls if the could come over to play.  They were working on chores but would be able to come out later.  Last year I only did water balloons once with Baylor even though he asked for them several times. So while we were waiting for them I started filling up balloons.  

I filled up three buckets and I am sure it took about an hour.  One reason why while I enjoy water balloons, they are a lot of work for a few minutes of fun.  And they take just as much time to reload!  But I did have some other options ready for the kids.  I filled up the blue kiddie pool and put in all of our water guns and squirters and sponge bombs for them to play with while I filled up more balloons.  When the girls came over I had them ask if they could get wet and they decided to go home and change in to swimming suits.  They were bombing each other when Doug came around the corner armed with a squirt gun.  He was now part of the fun.  Mandy and I sat on the patio which was the dry zone.  I filled balloons and we talked while the rest of them went through a half a pool of water.  Doug said the kids all had huge smiles on their faces as they raced at him with a squirter or balloon.  It was a big hit but they could not stay long because they were going out to dinner to celebrate the end of the school year.  Baylor starts this fall!!! 

While Baylor relaxed after the water fight, I started a fire in the fire pit.  Gloria has wanted to make s'mores for weeks but it has been so windy or raining on the weekends that we just have not been able to make it happen until today.  We had gathered all the dead branches from our trees and out at the fire hall grounds so I had plenty of wood to get it started.  My parents had given me some cut wood and we had a few pieces of scrap from the neighbors as well.  And I had a bunch of boxes to burn!  I am a Miller and we do love playing with fire! 

As does my son!!  

He is very comfortable around it and careful.  

We had the sacred Spring supper of Strawberry Shortcake.  I remember growing up at least once in the Spring we got to eat dessert for supper!!  I was glad that Baylor wanted it as well because he had eaten not too long before Gloria got home.  

We ate outside under the trees by the fire.  It was awesome!  

And we were all excited for the marshmallows and s'mores. 

Gloria, this one is for you.  I am glad we were able to make these finally!  

Baylor just likes the marshmallow part and was happy to just work on that.  

And then Gloria got to burn one and that was totally for her.  Yuck!! My grandpa taught me how to toast a marshmallow and burnt offerings are just not acceptable to me.  But that is how she enjoys them so it is all good.  

After supper and dessert, I broke into my fireworks stash from last year after the Fourth of July. 

Gloria even joined in the fun.  She really does not like fire and I am glad she was up for the fun!  

 We went through two packs of sparklers and one fountain.  I would have done more but Gloria had already gone to bed and I did not want to wake her because she goes to work so early

Fire pits are wonderful but lonely without someone to talk to and sit with. 

My cankles, I hope they are gone this time next year.  

Memorial Day at The Hazels

Sunday my parents came over to my house and we piled into the van and headed to Heather and John's campsite.  It is about 40 minutes away and we visited them once last year.  This year they got a permanent site and have been setting it up for the last month.  The week before, when we got all the rain, they were flooded up to their first step and John's car was in enough water that it would not start!  But it was all dried out by now.  We have not see them since the first weekend in April and we missed Brigid's birthday and Easter with the kids.  

Part of Connor's Easter basket was a large soccer ball and the devil sticks (I am not sure what their real name is, that is what we called them at camp). I am not very good with them but good enough to show Connor how to get started.  

Part of Brigid's birthday gift was her own tent, in the form of a pink castle.  When the boys get together they make tents of blankets and furniture and poor Brigid gets left out of them. So I wanted her to have her own place to go and I bought her a pink dragon because all princesses need a dragon.  

Brigid was nice enough to let the boys in the castle.

And of course her best friend Charlie was allowed in.  It is a good thing Charlie has her because Murphy died in April.  It was a sad weekend for everyone because he was just a wonderful dog!!  

And when that was not working she just dumped the castle over him.  

Happy Third Birthday pretty girl!!  

We have a saying in the family that comes from Grandpa, the smoke is pretty acrid, it gets you acridly in the face no matter where you. (think accurate, it is not as funny when I write it down!)

Connor rode his bike everywhere and Baylor chased him around the park.  On their first lap Baylor took a nose dive in the drive and skinned his knee.  He was ready to go right there and we had only been there for about 15 minutes!!  It took him a long time to get over it and we changed his shoes from flip flops to 'crocs'.  Well, after running full speed after Connor for a long time, he came back with a new pain on his foot.  This time in the form of a blister, his first blister, and it was already broken open.  I took him over to the creek to put his foot in the water to cool it down.  It worked for a while until we could get a bandage with cream over the blister, then socks, and shoes.  Good thing I packed for everything!  Heather bought a beach cruiser and took the boys for a ride down to the 'pond'.  It is actually a low area in the creek that was still running high from the rains.  Usually it is just marshy but now it was a slow water area the boys could play in.  Mom and I walked down after them to help out with all the kids.  

The boys were good on their own and just played around the pond together without any incidents.  

Baylor was good about taking Brigid in to the water but then they would both splash her and out she would race.  

So I took her out to the little island because they boys were too little to take her along with them.  It was a bit deep out close to the island, deeper than I thought because the leaves masked the real bottom!!  

But we made it and waved to Heather and Mom sitting in the shade.  

After we dried off we walked to the office/store and bought ice cream.  The boys and I sat out in the sun and Heather, John and Brigid sat on the porch in the shade.  

I am glad these two are friends!!  

I took the boy to the play ground when they were done with their cones.  

It was a wonderful day at the camp and I hope we go back.  They will be there just about every weekend so I am sure we will!