We went with some friends strawberry picking this morning, bright and early! Ford has been waking us all up at 6:15 a.m. every morning so we made the best of it and traveled about 45 minutes north and into the country to a wonderful organic farm (http:www.bchuntfarms.com/default.aspx) We wanted to all go on Saturday, but when we called that morning they had been picked clean and told us not to come! It was amazing to see all the wonderful berries that had ripened up by today. Ford had a fabulous time being held by two of the farmer's daughters, who continuously picked and fed him strawberries--note the red stains on his face and arms :)

James mostly roamed around the fields, but ate his fair share of "straw-burrries" has he calls them. He did think it was fun to pick one and then hide it for me to find like an Easter Egg!

Charlotte worked diligently with our friend's three daughters and their cousin, munching along the way. She filled one gallon almost completely by herself. The weather here has been very nice lately and breezy. We had some thunderstorms last Thursday with lots of wind that caused a lot of damage around town, but also brought with them wonderful rain and gorgeous clear skies that made these beautiful berries :)

I managed to pick 3 gallons myself and am hoping to freeze a bunch and puree some to make a strawberry cake for James's birthday that's coming up. Let me know if you have any good strawberry recipes!

Charlotte is very proud of our flowers in the boxes out front this year.

Our Mother-Daughter Banquet this year was turned into a picnic on the lawn of the church because of all the construction we're doing. The fellowship hall and the part of the building where Sy's office used to be have all been torn down. It was a beautiful evening and the food was wonderful. This was our 3rd year going together which was really special.

My big 5 year old!

Go Eastwood Warriors!! Charlotte's 6 and under soccer team lost again today, but they all did great. She loves playing goalie, but only a couple of the kids have grasped how to follow the ball and dribble it. Because there are only 6 kids on the team, they usually all have to play the entire game. Ask Charlotte her favorite part of playing soccer: "The snack!"

James's favorite part of soccer: "I want a lol-a-pop."

A couple more from the eating of the birthday cake that are just too cute :)

Washing it down...

Ahhh, so happy!

Happy First Birthday Ford!! The big kids helped blow out his candle, but he loved everyone singing to him...

Hmmm, should I stuff this all in my mouth???

Yes!! Yummy :) And he finished the entire piece very carefully until all the crumbs were gone. You can tell by those cheeks that he doesn't miss a meal....We should have known when he weighed in a year ago at 10 lbs. 6 ounces.!

Surprised Sy arrives home from breakfast with his parents to find things in a state of disarray! Mike and Ellen are on the trailer loading up shrubs/bushes that we've already managed to pull up. I finally surprised him!

Most of our crew (and yes, all the kids helped, too!) Sy's parents and Charlotte aren't in this photo because they are at her soccer game and picking up the birthday cake.

Sy, James, & John (two men from the single's group). James planned the landscaping and took care of buying the plants for me that morning! John and his fiance, Katy, drove her truck to pick everything up for us at 7:30 a.m. Thank you!!!

Here James and Sy are discussing the fate of the boxwoods.

Before/After Pictures Set 3 (see below for story):
Here is our back parking area at the end of our shared driveway. Sy had begun clearing out the vines a few weeks ago and we finished it off, pulled out the spider grass and planted pitosporum.

I don't have before pictures for the back patio by our deck, but there were two "parking lot" bushes that were as high as the fence, lots of vines and random bulbs, and a dead big, leafy plant. We discovered after clearing everything out that the brick patio was much bigger than we thought :) The perfect place for the fire pit I got Sy for Father's Day last year!

Before & after pictures: Set 2 (see below for story!)
View from front driveway side of house...The two crepe myrtles closest to the house were also crepe "murdered" as we like to say. Sy had tried to prune them the week before, but we were so glad to have Mike & his chainsaw to just go ahead and put them out of their misery!

View of the back bedroom-side of the house from the backyard: A beautiful yellow creeping rose that had creeped its way one too many times into the house through those 6 windows, is now gone :( The crazy bush behind Sy's garden, and all those shruberyish bushes along the back of the house were removed and Mike's tiller worked wonders. We even discovered a garden border that was already there, but we didn't know went the full perimeter of the bed. Azaleas once again took their place with some existing fern to hopefully fill in around them on the corner of the house.

Sy's 30th birthday was Dec. 27th, but I thought it would be fun to surprise him with a yard makeover...so, the single's group from church and a bunch of our friends, as well as Sy's parents, were in on our own little version of "While You Were Out!" Sy decided early in the week before not to go to his rugby match that was a big part of the plan, but the more I thought about it, I knew the surprise of all these people showing up with a truck full of plants to spend the day with him would be wonderful to him, too. His parents took him and Charlotte and Ford to breakfast that morning and when they arrived home at 10 a.m., demolition was well underway!! Everyone worked so hard and here are some of the main before/after pictures.

View from our front driveway: This is a patch of random stuff we've been wanting to remove since we moved in and it's gotten more unruly every year....Ah, the wonders of a truck with a cable to yank it all out! Thanks Katy & James! Not quite sure what we are going to put in there if anything yet. Any suggestions?

This is the view from our back driveway (shared with our neighbors) toward the street. These poor boxwoods were hideously groomed and couldn't be saved. Once again, what wonders can be done with a truck and its cable! It looks like we didn't plant anything in their place, but there are azaleas there in the shadows below.

Shootin' some birthday hoops with his present from Nina & Big Jim! He's still mainly crawling belly-style, but pulls up to knees and even up to standing in his crib (which totally scares him once he's standing!)

We have another hilarious character on our hands and love seeing what he adds to the already crazy mix!