Day of Baking

With 7.5 pounds of strawberries waiting in the fridge, I spent today figuring out things to do with them all. So, we now have strawberry bread and strawberry pie (my first attempts at both!). Now, it's off to freeze most of the rest for enjoyment later on.

Strawberry Fields Forever

We spent a good portion of today out at the Chesterfield Berry Farm with our friends Shawn and Erica Morrison and their kids, Manning and Caleb. It's strawberry picking season! It was a lot of fun and definitely brought back memories of picking strawberries in the summers back in Minnesota. Great fun!

Brennan did surprisingly well out in the field. He attempted to pick some berries, ate a few berries, and wandered up and down the row. He seemed to enjoy carrying around the little container we got for him to put his berries in.

The Morrisons, hard at work collecting their own strawberries. Their little ones sure enjoyed picking and eating!

Daddy teaching Brennan how to empty his container into the big flat.

Enjoying the ride back.

The finished product. A whopping 7 1/2 pounds!

There was a huge, deep area filled with corn for kids to play in. Brennan was a little unsure of himself when we first put him in, so Mama got to go in too. He settled right down and really enjoyed playing.

Posing as various farm animals.

We got to go on a wagon ride!

Since he was too little for the bounce house, we opted to play in the hay. It was fun for him for the first few minutes. After that, he was ready to be done with the hay.

Brennan and his buddy Caleb. Caleb enjoyed it more than Brennan. Brennan just wanted to slide off it and keep on walking.

Wonderful Weekend

We spent this Memorial Day weekend down in Newport News visiting our friends, Brent and Wendy Vallee and Kevin and Liz Hass. It was a great way to celebrate our anniversary (Sunday--six years!) and John's birthday (today!). Lots of good fellowship and fun activities. Brennan even slept great for naps and at night in his pack and play--in the same room as us, no less!

Despite a rather cloudy start to the day on Sunday, we got in some good beach time with the sun coming out shortly after our arrival. Brennan really enjoyed playing in the sand with some fun new beach toys, but wasn't really all that keen on going near the water (which was just fine since the water was pretty chilly).

Relaxing after a big lunch

He would only come down to where the sand started to get wet from the waves--and that was only while holding our hands. I think there was something about the waves that scared him.

We spent part of Monday checking out the Virginia Aquarium. There were all kinds of fun fish to look at, giant sea turtles and sharks, otters, snakes, and a sting ray touch pool. Brennan seemed to enjoy parts of it, but really, what keeps a 17-month-old's attention for longer than 2 minutes anyway?

Daddy pointing out some cool fish

Shark attack!

One of the very cool sea turtles

Toilet Paper Trails

I turned my back for a minute, and the next thing I know Brennan is pulling the toilet paper off the roll, dragging it behind him like he's leaving a trail to find his way back to the bathroom. Fun activity for the kid, but not so much for the mama who gets to roll it back up.

Fun with Food

We're attempting to teach Brennan the art of eating with a fork, but using the hands is just so much more fun (especially when spaghetti is on the menu)!

Little Book Lover

Since I love books and reading so much, it's definitely my desire that Brennan also grow up with a love for books. So far, I think it's working! He loves books and can sit for quite a while flipping through the pages of his books looking at the pictures. He has recently started telling himself the story in his special way when he flips through his books (his current favorite is "Good Night, Gorilla"). It's also been fun to head out to the library, which I love to tell Brennan is the happiest place on earth, where we get tons of books for his reading pleasure. I've also recently discovered that our local library does a Mother Goose story time on Saturday mornings for kids up to 24 months. With me working in the mornings during the weeks, I haven't been able to take him to story time during the week, so this has worked out perfectly. The first week we went, it was not pretty. But this week, Brennan behaved MUCH better and really seemed to enjoy being there. Whew!