Awesome Roadtrip!

Saturday morning Baylor and I headed down to Leesburg for a weekend playdate.  We look forward to all of our playdates but overnight playdates are even more special!  (Hi Tara!) I should just post a link to your site and just follow along because we caught the same moments!!  Leesburg and the surrounding area has many wonderful places to visit and entertain the kids.  Tara suggested we take the boys to Brunswick Train Museum in Maryland.  Tara and Lucas have been there and she knew it was a hit with her little man. (BTW Tara, THANK YOU for paying for us to get in, I kept forgetting to tell you that was very nice and unexpected!) 

 I would have loved to spent more time in the historical room because I love looking at the vignettes and photos of the history of the area.  I did stop at the 'Post Office' and stamp a few post cards with the location and date as a souvenir. Unfortunately the clapper had been removed from the bell which made it frustratingly silent. I am sure it was a good thing; this bell being rung all day long would probably start some teeth itching!  

On the third floor was the model train room with trains running from DC along the towns in Maryland along the tracks.  On the walls were buttons that when pushed made things happen in the scenes and noises to be made.

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The fair was my favorite most likely because it was colorful and they had fun carousel music.

I told Lucas when he grows up, if he still likes trains, he could work here and play with the trains all day.  It would be a wonderful place for the little engineer. 

Back on the first floor, hidden in the back was a train room for the kids to play.  Tara and I discussed her plan to offer to paint a mural on the walls and I think it would be a great idea!  The boys played around the table and Lucas cracked me up with the way he narrates his train play like a Thomas movie!!  It was so cute! 

When we finally pried them away from the table we headed down the street to Beans in the Belfrey, a church converted to a coffee house cafe.  If I would ever open a coffeehouse cafe, this would be exactly what I would want; eclectic, welcoming, comfortable, put your feet up, sip your coffee while the kids play kind of place.  

Baylor preformed on the stage and being five, his performance included his rear end. 

And some weird serious face poses!  

They have a dress up bin and I made Baylor wear something for a photo.  

We headed back to ole Virginny and dropped the kids off at the house to play while Julie was home so Tara and I could do some shopping.  It is rare to get to go shopping with a fellow shopper and without a child or two.  We hit their Big Lots for some summery items and odds and ends one can only find at a store such as Big Lots.  Then we went to the grocery store in the plaza to look for canning jars to make mulberry jelly.  Tara had never been there before and we were both in grocery store heaven.  It was not a Wegmans but they had amazing produce section and I think we did two or three laps around the International section just picking up this and that. We picked up items for DYI pizzas for dinner, the canning items, hitting up a few other departments as we went.  On the way back for bacon, I came across the 'odd' meats. Like trotters for $1.00 off.  And there was a cow tongue, unfortunately cut in half so it lost some of its gross appeal.  Just some of it, it was still gross.  

We made little little pizzas for dinner, washed up with boys in sparkly bubble bath soap and I put Baylor to bed with a movie to help him fall asleep by himself.  Us girls stayed up talking until the yawns were outnumbering the words and we too headed up to sleep.  The next day we leisurely made our way through the morning, sipping coffee, blowing bubbles, and following the boys around from play area to play area.  We enjoyed a lovely brunch of pancakes and bacon.  Afterward we started our foray into making jelly from mulberries found on the tree in the side yard. I have never tried this berry and it was rather like a raspberry, seed in little pulpy pockets.  We read online that the best way to harvest them was to lay out a tarp and just shake the branches.  I had to 'borrow' this photo from Tara of the boys shaking the tree.

We picked through the pile of fruit to get rid of bugs, bad berries, leaves and other undesirables.  The color was really beautiful.  

But then it was off to the stock pot to cook them down to make juice.  

We made a jelly bag from an old shirt front and a colander to strain off the juice from the mush.   

After a bit of jelly making magic, we had 12 small jars and one nearly full pint jar.

Again, a beautiful color.  

The boys played out on the patio, Lucas with the trains and Baylor with the construction vehicles moving gravel from the quarry to where it needed to be taken.  As very useful engines,  they knew just where to dump the stones.  (over by the front door apparently)

A bit of housekeeping to keep things neat.  

Out back on the train table, the boys found a scary looking caterpillar that I moved off to the bushes so they could play.  

Baylor wanted to play in the pool, the water was calling!  It was too cold as the sun had not had a chance to warm up all the fresh rain water in the pool.  

I bought Lucas a bubble gun because he seemed to struggle with the large bubble wand I had bought him.  I love this bubble gun and I was glad to find one for Lucas.  

After a light lunch of leftover pizza we took the boys to a local park to play for a bit.  Baylor was very daring and wanted me to watch him hang from the walkway.  

And when I was not watching him, he was asking random Moms to watch him.  

Eventually they took a break on the slides and we headed back to the house to get ready for dinner with Lucas' Nana. Julie made us a nice dinner but not long after dinner we headed home.  Baylor was a sleep before we were out of town and when we passed the drive-in in Dillsburg I really debated waking him up to go see How To Train Your Dragon 2.  But like dogs, I let sleeping boys sleep.  Of course when we arrived home he woke up for the next hour and a half!! Totally could have seen the movie!  

Thank you Tara, Lucas and Julie for an amazing weekend play date!!  

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.