Strawberry Picking!!

I have been wanting to take the boys strawberry picking this year, but the season is becoming more brief as the rain keeps falling and rotting the berries. Besides being a bit wet and muddy, today it was a good day to go strawberry picking because it was cool instead of hot. We squished our way through the strawberry patch and began our picking, let me rephrase that...I began picking strawberries while Joshua picked weeds and Matthew ate strawberries. Eventually both boys got the hang of picking and we filled up our flat in no time at all. This year many more berries we soft and rotting so that made picking a bit trickier, especially with kids. After an hour we had 11 pounds of strawberries and two wet, muddy, strawberry stained, happy kids and one happy mom. Now to clean and freeze some strawberries, make a strawberry pie and enjoy the fruits of our labor!

Uh Joshua, we are here to pick strawberries, not weeds my dear!


Matthew found a good strawberry to pick.

Can I eat this one too mom?!?!

Joshua finally realized we were there to pick strawberries!

Matthew liked to help by dumping the rotten berries.

My little strawberry picking helpers.

All done picking, time to sample!

Yum!!

Matthew adding more juice to his already strawberry-stained face.

No Training Wheels for Joshua!!

We've been telling Joshua all spring that this summer he was going to learn to ride his bike with no training wheels. So last week I worked with Joshua as he screamed and cried and yelled and cried some more for over an hour. I tried the traditional "holding onto the back of the seat", but he seemed to have no balance. I even went so far as to taking the pedals off his bike so he could use his bike like a ride on toy and practice balancing that way. Nothing helped. He was mad at me for the rest of the day and all through the night that I would dare make him ride a bike. I totally expected his whole reaction and predicted it months before the training wheels ever came off, but after dealing with it for over an hour last week I pretty much gave up hope that Joshua riding a two wheeler this summer was going happen. To say he is STUBBORN is putting it very mildly. When the child has no desire to do something (even if we know he CAN do it) he won't.

My friend had told me about a "learn how to ride your bike" class that her friend's son had taken at Gymco. Now that I'd given it a try with Joshua I knew it was a challenge better suited for him to conquer without the help of Cory or me so I signed him up online. The class was Wednesday afternoon and Joshua was nervous from the moment he found out he was going. It was Joshua and two other boys his age taking the class. He was putting on his brave face until he realized the teacher wanted the parents to leave for the class. He had a few tears, but a hug helped and he was off gliding (using his feet to push his bike around like a ride on toy) around the parking lot. I ran a couple of errands and when I returned an hour and half later this is what I saw!!!

Lo and behold, the stubborn child CAN ride a two wheeler! After lots of cheering and praise watching him show off his new skill I talked to the instructor. The teacher totally agreed with the need to have Joshua in this class saying that it would have been a huge struggle for us as parents to teach him since he had a huge fear and lots of anxiety about it and it's better that someone he doesn't know teaches him so they are connected with that fear and anxiety, not us. The teacher told me how he had watched Joshua glide with ease and do a good job at balancing so he knew Joshua was ready to actually ride the bike. When the teacher asked Joshua to put his feet on the pedals and try pedaling/riding the bike Joshua screamed and cried at him and even told him he was mean. Thankfully the teacher has dealt with kids like Joshua before and gave him some good ol' tough love and kept pushing Joshua to ride his bike. Sure enough, after a little pep talk Joshua took right off! I am so thankful this class was available, the teacher understood Joshua's personality and pushed through it with him!!! It was totally worth every penny we spent!

We have been practicing every day day since the class and although Joshua still has some fears and anxiety he is pushing through it and getting better and better. Today there were NO tears and he actually asked to ride down the street another time! We still have some skills to work on with him such as getting him to start on his own and turning better, but he is well on his way! We have no idea where Joshua's strong fear and anxiety is coming from regarding riding his bike (he has never had a bad fall or any bad experience involving a bike), but riding a bike has been a HUGE challenge for him and we are VERY proud of him for doing it!! WAY TO GO JOSHUA!!

Father's Day

We started out the day by giving Cory his Father's Day present, a T-shirt Joshua and I customized on a website and ordered for him. Joshua came up with the words pretty much on his own - we tweaked it a bit for the finished product. The shirt says, "Fix-It Daddy" above and below says, "He can build or fix just about anything". After church we went right out to the cottage to celebrate with my extended family. It wasn't the most beautiful of Michigan days, but we enjoyed the warm, overcast day. We spent a little time in the water before having lunch and then it was time for skiing and kneeboarding. We even let Matthew skip his nap so he could be part of all the fun. Joshua did the EZ ski for a while behind the jet ski, but didn't have any desire to do it behind the boat this time. I skiied and actually tried dropping a ski, but just couldn't get my foot in the back binding so I would only go several feet and fall. Cory skiied and kneeboarded as did my brother Phil. Cory also tried wakeboarding without much success. Guess we will just have to go back and try a few things again! We ended the day with a leisurely pontoon ride around the lake in which both boys were just giddy running around the boat. We were all exhausted when we finally got home from all the fun of the day. A huge thanks to my uncle and aunt for having us out to their cottage!!
Cory is a fantastic father who loves to spend time with the boys (okay not when the boys are fighting or being annoying, but who could blame him). We are so thankful for a husband/daddy who works hard for his family and puts them as a priority. We are blessed! So thankful that Cory could spend the day just how he wanted....having fun in and on the water!

Helping daddy unwrap his gift.



"Fix-It Daddy T-shirt" from the boys.

Matthew takinga ride on the jet ski with Uncle Phil

Joshua takes a spinning jump into the water while Matthew, my cousin Whitney and her husband Mark watch.

Me skiing.

The spotters in the boat.

Cory skiing and apparently squinting since his contacts were still in.

Aunt Cher and Joshua watching the kneeboarding from the dock.

Cory kneeboarding.

Uncle Phil, Matthew and Joshua laying on the back of the pontoon boat during our ride.

Uncle Steve answering one of Joshua's many questions while on our boat ride.



Videos below of Cory kneeboarding, Phil kneeboarding (and wiping out) and me skiing.

More Fishing

Yet another post about fishing as it seems to be what the boys in the house are really enjoying these summer evenings. Not only does Joshua enjoy fishing, but the last couple times Matthew has showed an interest too. Matthew fished with daddy for a bit this last time and had fun so we've since gotten him his own little fishing pole. On this particular night that we fished Joshua caught a little tiny blue gill and instead of throwing it back he kept it on his hook and use it as bait; apparently it was pretty good bait since about 15 seconds after he cast it into the lake a bass was on his hook! We are lovin' summer and all the fun things that come with it!

Reeling in a Bass as it tries to get off the hook by jumping out of the water.

Joshua and yet another Bass that he caught!

Watching the big Bass swim away.

Caught another one!

Matthew fishing with daddy.

Matthew caught a little Perch!

Matthew thought he was big stuff fishing with daddy.

Homeade Popsicles

A friend of mine put a recipe for homemade Kool-Aid and Jello popsicles on facebook that we just had to try. One little problem though....my popsicle molds seemed to have disappeared over the years, that or when we moved I chucked them instead of moved them. After new molds were purchased we were able to make the delightful frozen treats. They are fun to make and oh so tasty!! Here is a link to the recipe (I adjusted it the recipe to use the whole envelope of Kool-Aid and it made the perfect amount to fill our 8 molds).

Pouring the water in and mixing up the ingredients.

Getting the lids on the popsicle molds.

"When will these be ready to eat?"

We have a fisherman in the house.

Joshua has really discovered fishing this summer and LOVES it! We decided to see what could be caught, if anything, in the pond/lake in our neighborhood which is catch and release. Surprise, surprise it has been the best place to fish! We started by using a friend's empty lot, but have since moved to a house that has foreclosed/vacant that has a little beach. Joshua has out-fished his dad and caught several blue gill, a few perch and some good size bass while Cory has only caught a few bass (14-16 inches long). Joshua doesn't mind the worms, holding the fish or even trying to get the hook out; seems he likes it all! I see a lot more fishing in our future!

Trying to get the hook out.


Reeling a fish in.

Got it!

Joshua and the good size blue gill he caught (Cory called it the Applebees fish - it's been eating good in the neighborhood)!

Happy fisherman!

A bass Joshua caught.

Clay, our neighbor, fished with us too and caught a bass.

Cory finally caught a bass too!

Cory and his bass.

One Busy Day!

We rang in the first day of our summer (Saturday) with a jam-packed day of activities. The day began with my neighbor-friend Christy and I running in the Diemer 5K (I got my second fastest time), following that was the parade that our husbands and kids joined us for and to round out the morning Joshua and his neighbor-friends, Corrinne and Hunter, ran the Jr. Jog. The parade wasn't as exciting as we had hoped for, but the kids got candy and they were happy! The Jr. Jog was cute; each gender and age group had their turn to warm up with Brian Diemer and then run their lap. Joshua did a great job running and had fun doing it; he got a "medal" and a water bottle full of coupons and goodies.
After a morning of excitement is was time for a quick lunch and short nap for Matthew. Then it was off to Cory's parents church for a Downhill Derby. Cory was supposed to race his dad's car, but after it got hung up on the starting ramp he opted to use his mom's "Gramma Mobile" instead. Cory and his brother Shawn raced against each other the first time and Shawn won by a ton. Shawn ended up placing second in their age class and Cory followed, placing third in the same class. Two of Cory's sister's kids raced the "Gramma Mobile" and one of them, Gabrielle, placed second in her age class. Even Cory's mom bravely raced in her age class and placed second. It fun afternoon and evening watching people race, eating some delicious junk food and just enjoying the day. Not a bad way to start out the summer!

Watching the parade after the 5K with Corrinne, Christy and Hunter.

Walking to the Jr. Jog.

Getting ready to race!

Listening to directions.

Warming up with Brian Diemer.

Run!!

Joshua sporting his medal and water bottle filled with stuff. (Excuse the squinty/almost closed eyes, he said it was too bright for a picture.)

Shawn smokes Cory at the Downhill Derby!

Cory driving the "Gramma Mobile".

Matthew gets a ride after the derby is done.