Welcome Summer!

One of the best ways I know to welcome summer is to go blueberry picking, and Callie and I did just that yesterday morning.  We loaded the boys in my car and drove out to Blueberry Hill.  Baby D immediately found a rock that he was enthralled with and carried that around for quite some time.

We picked up buckets and were offered a ride out to the fields (which we didn't turn down).

We decided to pick blackberries first.  After explaining that we only wanted to pick the ones that had already turned black, baby D made it his business to pick each and every blackberry within his reach.

He got so very excited each time he spied one

and repeatedly reminded me that they were "my blue boppies)"

He took his job of carrying his bucket very seriously.

It went with him everywhere.

It finally got to heavy to carry by himself, so he let us help.

Baby D2 wasn't so wild about about the heat. Callie wore him in the beginning, but they both became so hot that we switched him to his seat when we began picking blueberries.

Big brother was very sweet and wanted to show his baby brother his blueberries as he picked them.

By the way, when you are picking blueberries, if you accidentally squish one a little bit, you might as well go ahead squeeze it until all the insides come out.  

When we were all done, we split our berries and headed for the house.

Both of the boys were sound asleep before we even got down the dirt road.  Once I got home, I got the berries ready to bag and store and guess what I found in my bag of blackberries?
Yep, that little rock.

Blueberries For Cal

Remember the children's book "Blueberries For Sal"? In the story, a mom and daughter go out blueberry picking only to be followed by a mama bear and her baby. Well, there aren't any bears in my post, but Callie and I made a spur of the moment decision to go blueberry picking today. After seeing an ad in a local magazine we decided to drive out to Shuqualak Farm. It was a very hot day, but otherwise the weather was beautiful--and the farm itself was even prettier. I think I could get used to living someplace like this!They gave us a "handy dandy" pail and strap and we set out to pick some berries. The bushes were full and the berries seemed to just fall into our hands.An hour or so later and our buckets were full. As the berries were sorted and bagged, we enjoyed a homemade blueberry Popsicle on the front porch. It was the perfect way to spend an afternoon. Since Callie and her husband will be moving across the country in a couple of weeks, I cherish every bit of time that we get to be together!

DIY Toddler Tower

Baby D loves to bake with me---especially muffins, but really anything I mix together.  As soon as I ask, "Do you want to help Lovey cook?".   He rushes to pull the step stool out from beside the refrigerator.  When we made macaroons for the delivery nurses, he became very distressed that I needed to stand on "my 'tool" to reach the food coloring.

I like having him help and love it when Michael and Adellelyn have wanted to help me as well, but have felt very uneasy about him standing on the step-stool at times.  Because it is slanted, he can't get as close to the cabinet as needed and if he should lose his balance or step backwards, he would hit a very hard tile floor.

At one of the schools I worked with, they have Toddler Towers in their toddler classrooms so that the children can reach the cabinets in a safe way.  They are adjustable and awesome, but also big, bulky and expensive.  To the tune of $150-200 expensive.

Enter one of my grand ideas.  I found directions for a DIY Toddler Tower over on Ana White's website.  After showing it to Ron, we decided that we could build one ourselves and even make it so that it would fold up for storage.

I measured and Ron cut.

As I eluded on my Instagram photo of this step, building projects are sometimes a bit stressful for our relationship.  We have very different ways of approaching things like this and we both can become a bit "snippy" about it.  Such was the case this time, as well, but fortunately, those moments don't last long and we are soon working together again.

Then we assembled.
The directions were easy to follow, with the exception of the part about adding hinges.   The directions only said to purchase 8 sets of sturdy hinges, and we soon realized that half of the ones we bought were too large for the boards.  So, back to Lowe's I went to exchange the hinges.  The other part that was tricky was where to put the hinges.  The included drawing shows half of them on the inside and half of them on the outside.  We couldn't figure out any possible way for that to work, so we placed all of our hinges on the inside.

That meant that our front and back boards had to be placed on the outside of legs, which left a space between the front and the platform that I was worried about feet slipping into.

Adding a scrap of wood to both the front and back fixed that problem and the rest went together just fine.

I sanded and painted the tower and had the chance to try it out this afternoon.  (Please ignore the very messy counter top--it's real life).

It worked great!!

Baby D was a little bit hesitant to climb up the rungs by himself, but it is just as easy to lift him up onto the platform while he is this small.

The front fits flat against the cabinets and hits just below the counter top, which is perfect.

I like that it has the curved sides to hold onto--particularly when I need to step away to get an ingredient.

Of course, being at counter level means that he can reach my iPad and swipe away recipes.  And steal blueberries from the pie.  But, it also means we can cook together much more easily and safely.

The cost of all our supplies was about $35.00 (hinges were the most expensive part of the supplies).
Now, excuse me while I add a scoop of ice cream to our bowls of Berry Crisp. (For our very simple, yummy recipe, click here.)

Berry Pickin' Time!

Friday morning, Callie and I joined Leah and Erma out at Hillcrest Blueberry Farm for a relaxing morning of picking.   Several years ago, Callie and I picked blueberries at another farm--Hillcrest is much bigger!

It has been rainy all week, so the grass was quite wet, but not muddy.  And it sprinkled on us as we picked blackberries, but it didn't last too long, or stop us.

I never even knew there were different varieties of blackberries (never thought about it, I guess), but there are.  I chose to pick on the "blue" rows, where the plants are thorn-less and the berries are the sweetest.

The bushes were loaded and the berries were so pretty!

It didn't take long to fill our buckets with blackberries.

I caught sight of a tiny bunny watching for his chance to sneak a bite.  He reminded me of the story of Peter Cottontail, but of course, no little blue jacket on this bunny.

After dropping off our blackberries, we got new buckets and headed out to the blueberry field. 

Callie thought that it was very convenient at this stage of her pregnancy that she could pick berries without even having to lean over!

Once our buckets were full, we paid for them and headed back home, dreaming of recipes we could use them in.

Back at my house, I discovered that the guys were hard at work installing my new sprinkler system in the backyard, so I made up a bag of berries for each of them.  Leah shared her recipe for blackberry cobbler, and Callie made it Friday night---she reported that Jordan decided that he DID indeed like cobbler after all.!

I made blueberry waffles Saturday morning that were quite yummy . . .

. . .. and blackberry crumble tonight (I didn't have any milk on hand to make the cobbler).

As evidenced by the empty bowl, it was a hit!

I think since it contained oats, it could be classified as breakfast.  What do you think?

Here is the cobbler recipe that Leah shared with us:

Fruit Cobbler

1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 c. milk
MIX ALL TOGETHER.

Melt 1/2 stick margarine (or butter) in bottom of a pan then add the other ingredients.
ADD 2 cups fruit to top.
SPRINKLE with sugar.
BAKE at 375 for 30 minutes.