pickin' time

Everyone's garden is coming in!  I don't have a garden but I'm the beneficiary of my folk's garden.  The only gardening I actually do is going to Reid's U-Pick strawberry patch every year.  This year everything was a bit late because of our cool spring.  I'm hoping that means the peaches were late, too.  Haven't had a chance to go out and pick up any of those yet.

Last year, Will slept in his stroller through the whole strawberry experience.  Not this year!  He loves to eat.  Strawberries are so awesome freshly picked.  So good in fact that Will  just stuffed the entire berry in his mouth and ate them all at once.

Most of them he just swallowed the stems and all.  If the stems were too big, he'd spit that part out as you see here.

Hope is an old pro at this strawberry thing.  This year she was an actual help.  She can pick out a ripe berry and puts more in the basket than she actually eats!

See!  All ripe and ready!  Before you think I'm stealing by letting them eat some of the pickin' before it was weighed, I need you to know that I always tell them at the front desk what goes on in case they want to charge me extra.  Besides, we also let them rip us off by charging an arm and a leg to go to Reidland- where, by the way, they have added a kid sized zip line.  It is way fun.  I think all of you who know Big Pappy need to put some pressure on him to go check it out so he can see how we can rig that up out at Camp Sansom!

Now, on to other summer traditions.  Can you believe softball is over?  Well, actually there is still the fall league but the summer league is over.  This year was full of the usual fun and testosterone.  Here is where I'll put in a plug for a favorite product of mine.  Do you have nasty, smelly, sweat- soaked clothes to wash?  Get yourself some Tide Sport with Febreeze and the Tide Stain Release pods.  The hot water cycle with pre-soak does the trick.   No oxiclean, no Shout, no scrubbing.  If you had seen my kids or my husband after any number of these games, you will know I speak with authority on this issue.

This year, Will was just a spectator, but watch out baseball world!  This kid is ready for some action.  He watched his dad "fall down" and at the first of the season seemed concerned about this.  Now, he understands that you swing at the ball, then run in a circle and slide into base.  His slide needs some fine tuning, but there is no shortage of effort on his part during living room baseball games.