Yay happy fathers day to the fathers out there including mine of course, my husband and my father in law!

Yesterday morning we went strawberry picking at Verill Farm in Concord. They had a pick-your-own strawberries and since I usually miss the season each year, this year I really tried to pay attention and jump on it when the strawberries were ripe. We went with our neighbors Christina, Zach and Ethan and had a great time picking the berries. Josie caught on right away how to look for the good ones and did pretty well. Celia was just tickled pink at getting to rip things off of plants which is usually not allowed, she’d often pick the white ones. After a while she figured out that she was allowed to eat some and then she was overjoyed as she loves strawberries. The picking was fast as we can’t eat too many pounds of strawberries at once. We got about 3 lbs by the time we were done, I sorted through them for the rotten/squished/not ripe ones and we headed over near the other fields for a snack and we and the kids played around for a while. I enjoyed using my camera and trying to work on backlighting since it was full sun but at least it wasn’t noon.

We had fun, we’ll definitely have to go again next year! I also tried a new trick that I read online which was  to soak the berries in a 1-10 vinegar-water solution to kill mold and bacteria that makes them rot. Normally I know they shouldn’t get wet so I’m interested to see if this works at all.

Yesterday we spent our free time with my dad celebrating his birthday with a nice dinner out to Punjab, some gifts and some pie and home-made kitkat ice cream. Our friendly neighbor snapped this for us, showcasing the card Celia and Josie made for my dad. Celia painted the orange cake, Josie did the candles with her fingers. Note that some people are wearing a coat, in June, yikes is this weather weird.

Jordi’s mom came up for Josie’s birthday party and hung out with us a few more days. She got to do such fun things as take the girls to the doctor, and take me to the doctor for some strong medicine to finally get healthy. One day we went to the Stone Zoo as she had gotten Josie a membership for her birthday. We also played outside and inside and luckily on the day she had to leave we got to go to the Franklin Park zoo all together before we dropped her at the airport to just barely catch her flight. Josie and Celia loved to watch the gorillas, especially the baby one. We’ve been to the zoo at least 5 times now since getting the membership, we can get friends in too, so let us know if you want to go!

On Josie’s birthday we had a full house with three extra guests in our little place! We woke up and had waffles for breakfast at home and my parents joined us too. We had the traditional whipped cream, strawberries, butter and syrup on them, fully loaded. Then we headed into present opening where Josie got to open her whole big pile of loot. She got a great well-rounded set of presents from books to art and dress up and our big present to her was a new big girl bicycle. I made her (yet another) cake for us to celebrate with, this time a layer carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.

After some bike riding and playtime, Josie requested italien food for lunch, so we got some takeout from Sabatino’s.  And then we had a hasty cake and singing time as Javier and Bruna had to catch their flight back to Miami.

Celia I think was already napping by cake time, she was too tuckered out to make it. We said our goodbyes to Javier and Bruna and spent the lovely afternoon playing outside with my parents down at Waldo park and down on the bikes. Per Josie’s request I made lentil burritos for dinner and wished her a very happy birthday in the middle of dinner right at 6:39. More cake follows, boy we were full by the end of the day! It was a fun calmer day with us all at home relaxing and playing around the house with all the new fun toys.

Josie has been doing well with her new bike. No training wheels, she can ride across the basketball court and stop herself. Still working on getting going and she wants us to stay with her still too, but her balance bike has prepared her well. Celia has already claimed the balance bike well as hers and is trying really hard to master it already.

Josie’s party this year was the day before her actual birthday, with the usual party at my parents house with the bounce house, food and cake. Josie picked a theme of penguins and lollipops. I could not find penguin lollipops unfortunately so I went instead with making some cake pops that sort of looked like penguins. I am not terribly skilled with decorating confections, but I try. Josie thought they were pretty cute, but they seemed to be too sweet for the kids though several moms liked them. The girls and I had also made some paper penguins that we put on the walls and bought some big rainbow lollipops that we put out on the table.

We had a book exchange at the party which always produces the most amazing quiet calm time at a birthday party that I’ve ever seen!

Jordi’s mom had flown up that morning from Miami so she celebrated with us too.

I made some of my mom friends smile for a picture…

We had an art table. Interestingly enough, Celia was just wandering all over the party helping herself to whatever she wanted and doing whatever she wanted. She was completely comfortable which was pretty amusing and she’d just walk away from whoever was watching her quietly and swiftly until you’d turn around and have to find her again. She’d climb in the bounce house with the big kids, sit down and start drawing with markers at the table, and go help herself to some cheese.

At the end, they enjoyed the big lollipops.

Josie blew out her candles, after the wind blew them out first. [Photo credit to my mom as I was obviously not in a position to do this]

And then we sent them all home for their own dinner while we grabbed some pizza and soup even though we were all so stuffed from the party! But the partying didn’t end there… Sunday was her actual birthday and we started early.

About a month ago I found a recipe for some driveway paint and let the kids have at it. It was easy to mix, half water half cornstarch and while the mixture was a little odd, when poured on thick it went well onto the driveway and left some major fun colors! We even attracted all the neighboring kids to play with us too and paint. This week we bought three boxes of cornstarch to make more fun paint!

It has been a very quiet month here on the blog because we’ve had an extremely busy month! We had out of town company, Josie’s birthday and party and then we all tromped off to Europe for two weeks. We’re home now, still jetlagged, Celia woke up at 3am today, 1am yesterday, so we’re headed in the right direction. Here’s a photo while I try to get those posts all written, but we’ve been going to bed with the girls at 7pm so far, so no time yet! Local people – Josie could definitely use some play dates after two weeks with no playmates her age if you’re around!