Remember these strawberries from yesterday? 

They were what we had left over after making strawberry jam.  Today, I decided to try something new and made strawberry scones with some of them.  The rest I cut up to make strawberry shortcake.  The kids were really anxious to try them after they came out of the oven but I told them that if they wanted them we had to get some exercise first.  So we rode down to the school to play for awhile and then took a 4 mile bike ride.

 Even the big kid joined in the fun

And when we got home they were rewarded with this:

Strawberry shortcake made with strawberry scones and real whipped heavy cream



A field of strawberries

We went strawberry picking today.  I love going to farms and picking my own fruit.  There's something about the act of walking through the orchards and fields and choosing which fruit you want that makes it taste better.

Cerah almost got lost out there

While Morgan carefully checked each berry out before picking them

Anthony was braver and just stuck his hand right in there

I showed Hannah the art of walking around to find the best strawberries

We couldn't resist one little bite.  Not to worry, we had them weighed before we started eating.

 With so many strawberries I decided to try making strawberry jam.  We bought stuff last year to make the jam but ended up eating all the strawberries!

Here's everything we need lined up and ready to use

The first thing I did was wash all the berries

Then I took the stems out

After that they were put on a pan to be mashed up

Next came the cooking of the berries and the sugar

Meanwhile the jars and the lids were being sanitized

Finally it was time to put the jam into the jars

These strawberries are feeling left out but I tomorrow I will make strawberry scones with them to go along with the jam

The finished product

Doesn't that look yummy!

My new floor

Yesterday I woke up, walked out of my bedroom and smelled our carpet.  It has been very humid here and when it is humid the carpet stinks like dog pee (not my dogs) and dirt.  Since it is supposed to be humid all summer long and the carpet hasn't been changed since we moved in I decided that walking out of my bedroom every morning and wanting to throw up from the smell was not an appealing idea.  So, I did what I always do.  I called Rob and said "just so you know I am tearing out the living room and hallway carpet today."  An hour later he was home and said "I know you so I took two vacation days." 

Here is the living room and hallway with the underlayment down.  I would have taken a picture of the carpet but it wasn't a pretty sight.



Here is our kitchen and computer room with all of the living room stuff.  Needless to say we had takeout for lunch and dinner.

Here's Rob working hard to put the flooring in

 Of course, all day the weather was like this

 Taking a quick break to eat dinner

At the end of the evening we had this much completed

 Bright and early this morning he was up and doing it again

 The best part of the day for Rob - putting the last piece down

 The finished floor by the stairs

 and by the bedrooms

Then it was time to put the trim back on and touch up the paint

The completed hallway

Now, I'm going to go off topic for a minute and show you what happened to my couch.  One of the children who I won't name but his initials are A.C. put the bleach bottle on my couch instead of on the floor.  Apparently he thought my couch needed a little something to make it look better. 

Alright fine, it's not a big spot and it is on the back of the couch but I still think it means I need a new black leather sectional to fix it.  If I get closer it looks bigger and then you'll see my point of view

Ta-da.  The new and improved living room (it'd look better with a black leather sectional with reclining seats and a pull out couch).  What do you think? 

Yeah, I think it needs a new couch too.  Great idea.  Thanks for the suggestion

What a surprise

This weekend we drove over to the west side of the state to visit Ray and Berna and see Alice who had come out for a visit. We had planned on having a surprise early birthday party for Cerah while we were there. But when we got there we found out that she had planned a surprise one for me and Rob too.

 

We each had our own cake.  Rob and I even got a couple of presents.

Cerah enjoyed opening all of her presents.  She was really excited to get some of the things on her wish list.

No, I didn't eat all of this by myself.  Although, if given the chance, I could have.

We all blew out the candles on our cake

And then we sat around, too full and lazy to do anything else.

To top it off Bambi and his mother and sister came to say Happy Birthday