We had a fuzzy little brown visitor a little too close to our garden this evening! It was actually closer to the fence, but had moved off a bit by the time we got the camera. Do you see it? Can you tell what it is?

A rabbit! Right outside our vegetable garden!! Joshua said that he saw a rabbit in our yard several nights ago, but this is the first time I saw one so close to the house. Plant a garden, and the wildlife comes out of the woodwork! We've had caterpillars ravage our radishes, and a few days ago I found a fire ant mound by my raspberry bush. Now this! Well, I suppose I could share a few squash since they'll be coming out of our ears--we have so many

Sorry for the poor resolution in these two pics. I had gone into the "digital zoom" mode on my camera so I could get a better visual on the pic. :)

Another Day, Another Birthday

The big 3-3 for me. Joshua spoiled me with lots of canning supplies as presents. Considering we're going to end up with lots of cucumbers and tomatoes, it will all come in handy!

Joshua made me a two-layer cake. He did a really good job! It tasted really good, and I know that he worked hard to make it for me this afternoon. What a nice surprise!

The kids helped me blow out the candles. I think that's because they just wanted to eat some cake. :)

The Graduate & The Artist

Our little man graduated from preschool yesterday. We were so proud of him! They had a beach themed program and sang lots of songs, like Jimmy Buffet's Cheeseburger in Paradise and Hot! Hot! Hot! (can't remember who sings it). It was so fun watching all the kids. We felt so happy for Daniel and this accomplishment. He is very excited about starting Kindergarten and wanted to go today, but we had to explain that it will be a few more months before he can go. Thankfully, he is okay with waiting. Which is good news for us and will spare us a major crying moment, at least for a few months! (In the picture above, Daniel is posing with his surf board that he painted himself. It is a Mach 5 surf board.)

And our little girl is also making strides of her own, this time in the art category. She got ahold of two crayons that were in her backpack while we were driving home, and this is what I found when I got her out of her carseat. I was horrified and amused all at the same time! Aah! Crayon on my car! I took her picture and told her she had to clean it up, which she happily did. Thankfully, it came off easily with a wipe. I had to give her a little lecture on not coloring the car, her clothes, her shoes, her toys, or anything else (which she has started doing lately) and that she can only color in her coloring books.

Ah, the joys of being a parent. :)

Impromptu Bunk Beds

The kids have decided to take over our bookcase, at least the bottom two shelves. It's just too cute to pass up a picture opportunity!

And it was so sweet of Daniel to share a blanket with Raelee. He made sure that she was tucked in "as snug as a bug in a rug." :)

A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words

Strawberry Time!

Daniel's preschool had a field trip to go strawberry picking Monday. We decided to go as a family. We drove out to Faison to Cottle Farms.

There's a huge "strawberry" out front to let you know you found the right place. It screams "photo op!!" Here's Daniel in front of the gigantic strawberry.

Everyone took a tractor ride out to the strawberry fields. Here are Daniel and Raelee with their cousin while on the tractor ride. Our niece is in the same class as Daniel. Their teacher comments about how they'll look after each other during the day, but they really don't play together. They have their own friends, their own favorite toys, but they do things to help each other out, and you can tell they're related.

Somehow, Joshua got stuck between another family on the tractor ride. I saw him Waaayyy over there and said, "What are you doing over there?" He had no real answer other than, "I got stuck."

After moving from Texas, I thought I'd never see a tank again. Was I wrong! This farmer must be from Texas. He surprised us by stopping the tractor along his tank and proceeded to feed his catfish. These suckers were HUGE! There were 3 of them, and you could tell they were really enjoying the food. Long after he stopped feeding them, they kept coming to the surface hunting for food, poking their mouths out of the water. Out of the 3 pics I took, this was the best where you can see the catfish.

The tractor stopped towards the back of the farm, and this is what we saw: acres and acres of strawberry plants!

Daniel carrying his quart of strawberries. He wanted all the small ones but was very smart about picking only the ripest. There were a couple muddy areas from the irrigation system, and he got his flip-flops stuck a couple times. But he really had a fun time picking strawberries & eating some, too.

Daniel was in charge of taking care of Farley, the class's mascot, over the weekend. Since Monday was a field trip, there wasn't any classes, so we got to keep him an extra day. Even Farley picked a couple strawberries. :)

Here's Raelee showing off her quart of strawberries. Before today, she refused, REFUSED to eat strawberries. Now she loves them almost as much as she loves broccoli (and thankfully I didn't have to take her "broccoli picking" for her to start loving those, she just followed in her brother's footsteps; broccoli is Daniel's favorite vegetable).

Now why can't my strawberries look like this? Ours were super scrawny and they ended up dying off after I picked the first two. Luckily, we have new strawberry blossoms and should have a second chance at getting good berries.

Here's the bevvy of berries we got. Quite a lot! My mother-in-law took a bucket, my sister-in-law took two buckets, and we got a bucket and 3 quarts.

First night home, we made a double batch of strawberry freezer jam. Since then, we've made strawberry shortcakes, and we've had strawberries in our cereal and for snack. And we still have a huge supply in the frig! We want to make some more freezer jam, and I am going to try my hand at Strawberry Muffins.

The Kids' Projects

Daniel has brought home so many projects from preschool, and on top of what he makes at Primary (children's church) and what Raelee makes at Nursery (also at church), I've run out of room on the fridge! I hate to throw away their projects. I scrapbook what I can, and put a lot of the projects in a portfolio case, but unfortunately some things just can't be kept. So to recognize and commemorate their proud projects, I'll occasionally take pictures of them with their projects and then scrapbook the pictures. The kids really don't mind having their picture taken, so it's a win-win for everyone!

Of course, when we take a picture of one child, the other child feels like he/she has to be in the picture, too! Not that there's anything wrong with that!

Daniel with all his many projects from preschool--boy does he bring home a lot of stuff! He's holding up a book he made about the universe. He does such a good job and is always so pleased to show me what he makes at school.

Raelee with a necklace she made at Nursery. It says "I'm happy when I say I'm sorry). And sure she does look happy here!