birthday boy

Well it's offical! Derek turned 39 yesterday! One more year closer to the big 40! He took the day off from work, with the intention of hitting a few golf balls, but changed his mind, and hung out with the family( enter the awwww here)

The girls and I had been busy getting together his gifts(Lego Star Wars game from the girls)

and a gift cert. to the local golf course. He's not really a cake kinda guy so we decided on getting him those little mini eclairs and stacking them up on a plate to look like a cake. I needed another box to make it look right, but I just kept thinking of all those extra eclairs that would have to be eaten...lol.

We decorated the dining room with a Happy Birthday banner, and balloons.. Later on in the day we went out to our garden spot to plant sweet corn and cantaloupe.(It's been so wet here I am glad we waited to plant)

It was a total family affair, and even though a little work was involved too, he had a great time. Happy Birthday Derek!

Gone Pickin'

I have been wanting to get up to Guy for a couple of weeks now, to pick strawberries, but something would always come up, and prevent it. My Mom stayed a few days with us, so we decide to try again. The night before had been really rough, with lots of bad weather, and rain

so I wasn't sure if they would be open for picking. Luckily they were, but boy was it humid!

If I didn't love Strawberries so much, I would have stayed home!

We got to the patch about 10am. Most people had come earlier, but we were lucky and they let us pick from a completely different area, that hadn't been picked over. It took us a little over an hour to fill up our 4 buckets. The rain has reeked havoc on the berry crop. Most were just mushy and discolored, the product of too much rain and not enough sun. I think Jacob had the most fun running around in the dirt and mud!

Kate kept yelling "I found one" and come and look at this one", every other second, and driving

us nuts. Lydia was very helpful, and efficient with her picking. Once we got home, we made a fresh strawberry pie, made freezer jam, and froze the rest as strawberry topping for desserts...Yum.