Dom’s traveling to Denver for the Catholic Media Conference and my mom’s here from Texas for the week to keep us company. (Yes, my dad is well enough for her to leave him alone. He can walk to the store, to church, and to his speech therapy. In fact, since he can’t swim, he’s wanting the exercise.) So today we decided to go strawberry picking. We met a homeschooling friend and her family and had a wonderful day (despite being almost half an hour late. I really am not good at estimating how long it is going to take us to get out of the house.)
We picked a big basket of strawberries. It wasn’t the prettiest activity. I spent most of the time trying to keep Ben and Anthony from trampling the strawberry plants, trying to help them find berries to pick, trying to keep my balance with Lucia in the Ergo, and at the end trying to bend over without setting Lucia off screaming. Poor baby wanted to sleep without her mama-carrier constantly tipping and swaying. Fortunately it didn’t take too long to fill our carton.
Then we went to explore the playground and 4H animals—rabbits, goats, ponies, sheep, and chickens.
(The sheep made a funny noise. That’s why my usually stoic Ben is giggling.)
Sand! Trucks!
Even a few minutes of cooperation!
I have sand in my boots.
We had a nice picnic lunch. The farm has a great deli counter and smoothie bar. We indulged.
Hi, Mom!
I hardly saw Bella. She was off exploring, chatting with her friends, doing her own thing. My friend Susan was very impressed at how sociable she was.
Many strawberries were consumed before we even left the farm. As it should be.
After lunch they went back for more playing, and came home for naps (for Ben and Anthony who both fell asleep in the car) and afternoon reading for the girls and I (Today’s books:All-of-a-Kind Family
, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader 
, and Japanese Children’s Favorite Stories
.)
Sophie didn’t want to leave. There might have been tears.
Such a happy summer day. I’ve been meaning to go strawberry picking every spring for the last four years and only now have finally got round to it. Last time we went I only had the two girls. I’m trying hard to work at seizing the day, finding opportunities to jump in and have fun.
The tart is superb. Just think of all those wonderful chefs-in-training you are raising. Cooking you dinner? Must be heaven on earth and it’ll be here before you know it.
That tart looks amazing. Bella did a fantastic job on it.
And I bet Ben would surprise you if you let him help cook Thai. He might at least taste it. There’s something about making it yourself that works on a person.
I’ll have to try that brocolini ragout, too. David begged for broccolini today at the store and I was going to broil it with some red onion like my mom makes it, but the ragout sounds good too.
+JMJ+
The tart looks fantastic! =D Don’t you love simple, tweakable recipes?