Cousin time!

We had my 10 year-old niece spend the weekend with us. My daughters were in heaven.
Not only did they get to have Sydney's undivided attention and constant make-believe games, but they all got to sleep in the same room!!! Joy of joys! ;) Note: they went to bed around 8:30 one night (late for my girls, early for Syd), but talked and laughed for at least an hour.

As soon as they walked in our house, all three girls started to play school. Teacher Sydney had them doing 4th grade level stuff in no time. Poor Selah! ;)

We went to the strawberry picking farm today. First thing out of Charis's mouth...before we even stepped foot onto the fields...was "This is a great trip! Can we do this again!?"
I love that about Charis. She's always so enthusiastic!

Take note of the hat I'm wearing. A couple of hours later, when I was feeding Raegan (and still wearing the hat), she was happily eating. She looked up at me...studying, studying...? All of the sudden, her lower lip juts out and she lets out this pitiful wail. She didn't recognize me! I jerked the hat off and tried to get her to look at me, wanting to convince her that I wasn't some random woman. But she refused to even look at me for the longest time. Always diverting her eyes just a few inches past where I would move my face. Wouldn't nurse for a long while either. About the sweetest reason for sobbing I ever did see! Oh, how I love my little girl, who obviously knows her Mommy!!! Minus the hat, that is.



Somehow we ended up with 17 lbs of strawberries!! What in the world?! Here I was thinking that we needed to step it up in filling our three baskets. I thought, for sure, we weren't gathering a lot.

Hmmmm... Maybe THIS is the reason why I can't seem to lose the last of my baby weight. Because I'm eating 15 lbs of food thinking it's only a "small portion". ;) Lovely.




With Selah picking strawberries, I had to keep reminding her to pick only the big and red ones. She'd ask me "Is this a good one?" About 10 minutes into this constant question, I told her that she could taste it if she wanted to. Apparently, she liked that means of assessment. From there on out, she tried almost every one that she picked. Taking one bite out it, declaring it good or not, and then proceding to put the half-eaten "good" ones into the basket.

After she took this bite, she looked up at me and said, "Yep, this one's good." I had to tell her to eat the WHOLE thing. :) She didn't put up too much of a fight.

Now, hours later, we're left with a 1/2 ton of strawberries. Completely ruined pie crusts because the girls and some stray bubbles (?) sort of "killed" the piecrusts we were making, and one hungry daddy who has gone to the grocery store to get ready-made crusts instead. Because he's craving strawberry pie that much! What a fun day :)