on monday

I packed a picnic lunch (the kids have been begging to go on a picnic) and took the kids to the strawberry patch.
It was sunny, 70 degrees and there was a nice breeze.
The kids complained the whole time that it was soooo hot and they were burning up and they just wanted to go home...
Really?
Some friends met us there to pick and they finally got over their whining, well at least I did not hear any more of it because I went to pick :)

When we were done I attempted to get a picture where all 5 kids were at least looking my general direction. It's an exercises in futility really, but I tried anyway... in vain. Here are the results of the little photo shoot.

teacher gifts

Every year it seems like the end of the school year sneaks up on me and I am racing to come up with some idea for a quick and easy, handmade teacher's gift. (In case you are wondering, I do homeschool my kids, but Tallulah goes to preschool 3 days a week as well. She will be homeschooled full time starting this fall.) This year I am happy to say that in my attempt to be more organized I actually remembered and put teacher gifts on my to-do list.

I have had these little baskets on my (long) list if tutorials to try for quite awhile now and yesterday as I was looking through my Tumbler Archives for gifts ideas I decided to give this tutorial a try. I had plenty of scraps to whip up the two I needed for Preschool and the baskets turned out super cute.
Now I just need some ideas for what to fill them with, any suggestions?

happy mother's day!

(my s-i-l, me, my mama, and my two sisters)

(my m-i-l (with baby Addie) and her hubby)

(my step m-i-l and my f-i-l)

still quilting and more random stuff

I'm about half way done with the quilting and then I just have to bind my quilt and I'll be done! Yay!

When I got Addie up from her nap today and brought her into the living room she immediately started motioning toward the couch and all the kids sitting and watching a movie, she wanted to sit with them too! Too cute!

We finished up another trimester of school today :) We will take a 4 week break and then jump back into math and writing for another 8 weeks then another 4 weeks off before we start the new school year. This is our first time schooling year round with 3, month long breaks. So far it seems to be working well for us, I will have to let you know for sure come September.

I recently read Organized Simplicity and am now reading Large Family Logistics. I am hoping to spend the next few weeks implementing some of the strategies from these books. I am generally not a very disciplined/scheduled person but I am seeing the necessity of some form of routine as a homeschooling family of 7.

We also have some fun stuff planned for the next few weeks like bowling, The annual preschool picnic (which includes pony rides and a moon bounce) and visiting with family.

Well, a certain one year old is crying in front the refrigerator trying desperately to get the door open to get some milk, so I better sign off!

random thoughts

I stopped drinking Coke.
I am on day 4 of a caffeine withdrawal headache, although, it is barely a roar today, nothing compared to the first day.
Without the Coke I am totally jonesing for sugar.
I've given up Coke before but don't ever remember my body craving sugar so badly.
For lunch today I had Steak ums, fruit salad and a slice of strawberry pie.
It was my second slice today.
I ate two slices last night.
I licked the whipped cream bowl after lunch.
I played with paper while the kids did their school today

The kids were fooling around in Sunday school, so we decided to have them write apology letters to there teacher.
You can see how excited they were to write these. I think it was a brilliant idea from my hubby though, and one we will use again, should there ever be a need :)

just chillin'

strawberries

It is that time of year again. The Strawberry Picking season has officially begun and today was the perfect day to go pick our first bucket.

This was Addie's first time to explore the patch on her own, not in the stroller.

Her big brother took good care of her while the rest of us picked.

Tomorrow this pretty pile will be two strawberry pies (probably my favorite strawberry treat of the season, closely followed by chocolate covered strawberries, of course... I'll be making those next week :). You can find my favorite Strawberry Pie recipe on my sidebar with the other recipes.
Do you have any favorite strawberry recipes you'd like to share? I'd love to hear them!