Strawberry Picking 2020

I'm so excited to be able to share our adventure to the Watts Farm to pick strawberries! We did not think we were going to be able to go this year due to masks being required. While I fully support businesses requiring patrons to wear a mask, our family will not be visiting such establishments unless absolutely necessary. And, well, to be perfectly honest picking strawberries just isn't an essential for our family. Thankfully, the farm did lift their mask requirement and we were able to pick 14 gallons of strawberries!

We actually tried to visit the farm two days prior when our oldest son was in town, but, unfortunately it started to rain the moment we pulled into the parking lot ~ sigh!! Still getting used to him not being around for all our fun family excursions, maybe next time. 

Abby Lou thoroughly enjoyed her first visit to the strawberry patch. I gave her a strawberry to taste and she didn't quite know what to think of it. 

I was really just trying to get a cute picture of Abby Lou holding the strawberry when she decided to lick it, but then she couldn't figure out if she liked it or not, and it was so cute. I honestly think if she had been able to she would have scarfed it down, because goodness gracious, those strawberries were extra sweet this year!

So thankful my husband is always up for my crazy shenanigans! It's not easy wrangling our wild crew to go and do anything, much less an outing to a local farm where there is delicious food at their finger tips. The kiddos were actually pretty well behaved and picked their fair share of berries for our family's needs.

Unfortunately, most of the toys at the farm were stored away due to them being 'contact items'. They did manage to negotiate with the powers that be to leave their Army jeep and tractor out for the children to enjoy. 

We ended up staying for a couple hours, picking our necessary strawberries, visiting with the owner, letting the children run around and play, and of course allowing mama to take a bazillion pictures, lol.

We love supporting small businesses especially when it's local ~ add in that it's a fellow farmer and we're in 'hog heaven'. It's such a blessing to be able to talk 'shop' with someone who is familiar with the ups and downs of growing food. We've also spent many of our visits over the years discussing canning and delicious recipes made with homegrown food. Trust me y'all it's so wonderful to be able to support and encourage the community of local small businesses. I really wish we could get back to those days on a much broader scale.

Look how pretty all those strawberries are. We must have had the perfect weather for growing strawberries this year, because they were HUGE and extra sweet! This isn't even all of our buckets, we picked a total of 14 gallons. Watts farm provides gallon buckets for their customers to use while they are picking and upon payment the buckets are returned. Thankfully, we remembered our big six-gallon buckets to bring home all of our beautiful strawberries! 

We've tried to no avail over the years to grow our own strawberries. Unfortunately, we've never been able to, which is why we are intentional to plan our yearly trip to Watts Farm to pick strawberries. Our family really likes strawberry jam. We typically add in our homegrown figs to make the jam stretch just a little further. I'll be sharing soon all about our strawberry jam making fun!

Once we returned home with all the strawberries, we went straight to coring and filling freezer bags. I have several berry corers which the big kids use to help core the strawberries. We create an assembly line of sorts with the buckets of fresh strawberries, a bowl for the core, and a basin for the cored strawberry. Once we were all done, the strawberries are placed into freezer bags and into the freezer. I kept about a gallon out to make a pie  (I will be sharing that recipe soon) as well as for strawberry syrup to pour over homemade poundcake. You can find my strawberry syrup recipe here.

Watts Farm is not technically an organic farm due to the hoops they'd have to jump through to get the certification. But, they do not spray they're strawberries and they are planted brand new each year. While organic is not a necessity for us, it is a bonus and something we would prefer if at all possible. We  have spent quite a bit of time talking with the owners, learning about their process and how their farm works. I'm so grateful we had the opportunity to visit Watts Farm this year. Not just to pick strawberries, but to support local small farms, and to enjoy quality family time. Plus, y'all know I'm a sucker for traditions. Hopefully it will be a continued tradition for many years to come. 

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Easter Funschooling

 This year's Easter funschooling week was full of blessed family time making treasured memories. As I mentioned in my Easter Totschool post, my husband was off from work, so he was able to join in on our special Easter activities. Thankfully, the weather was beautiful and we were able to do all kinds of fun projects inside as well as several outdoor family projects. Easter in the South is typically a wonderful time as Spring is in full force which makes the celebrating all the more enjoyable.

This year we made a cross silhouette project. The children painted a sunset scene with paint onto white construction paper. Then we cut out of black construction paper a mound with three crosses and glued it on top of the dried painted sunsets. I think this is one of my favorite Easter projects we do.

Y'all know I love our directed drawing projects. Well here was a cute bunny that we drew for our Easter funschooling week.

Everyone really gets into the directed drawing projects around here. Seeing everyone's creative personalities come out into their drawings is so special to watch and experience. There's something so amazing about watching a child grow and evolve in their creative abilities. While we don't do regular art lessons, I do try to give the children opportunity to be creative with making sure we have necessary supplies and the encouragement to explore their creative nature.

Of course no holiday is complete without making cut-out sugar cookies.

And yes we start them young in this house. It was really sweet too, because as is usual I was multitasking when we were making cookies this year, but everyone was made sure Abby Lou got a turn to make her cookies (and no, she is not eating them yet, lol).

While it is a lot of work and mess making cut-out sugar cookies, I wouldn't trade it for anything. All the special memories we have created over the years making cookies at each holiday are priceless.

There was a time my OCD, perfection side would want to 'fix' all these cookies and make them esthetically appealing, but I've come a long way, and all I see is love, joy, and happy times with my family. It's more important for my children to have the opportunity to participate, make messes, and explore life than it is for their creations to meet the 'world's standards'.

My older children made these editable bird nests. Well, Lydia helped too by putting the eggs on, but mostly they were made by a collaboration of my big kiddos. These candy/cookies were a big hit with everyone. They were a combination of no-bake oatmeal cookies and Rice Krispie treats. Obviously a perfect combination. 

Our family dyes eggs every year. Only two dozen since we have hundreds of plastic eggs. Even though we own a ton of plastic eggs for hiding, it's just way too much fun to let go of the tradition of dying eggs. Being present and doing things with my family really is my happy place. It's not work or a burden to do these things; it's a privilege. 

Abby Lou had her first experience in dying eggs. She acted as if she knew what she was doing ~ go figure. These babies just keep getting smarter and smarter.

Finally we played a minute-to-win-it game where everyone had to stack and unstack plastic egg halves. This wasn't what I had planned for our Easter minute-to-win-it game, but it's what ended up happening when I realized the game I had planned, the younger children would not be able to play. For me it's all about including as many family members as possible in our activities. 

Life is strange and different now, I don't know if life will ever resume to what it was two months ago, but I do know that I can make an effort to keep my family's life as normal as possible. I'm thankful that this Easter we were able to pretty much keep life the same as it has always been. Did we go to church? No. but we did have church; it just happened to be at home. I refuse to stop living life amongst these uncertain times. I am 'keeping on keeping on' for the sake of my sanity and for the protection of my children. They deserve my best, and that is what they shall have. When I look back on all the pictures and videos of our Easter funschooling week, I'm so very grateful that I can create AND make these special memories with my family.

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer 

Family Fun at Old Baker Farm

 About 14 years ago I was sitting in a doctor's office at Children's Hospital waiting on our second sons pulmonary specialist appointment when I came across a magazine with 'things to do in the Birmingham area'. In that magazine was an advertisement for a fall family fun event at a farm. They had all kinds of fun things for the children to do, including picking pumpkins. And so began our family tradition of visiting Old Baker Farm every October.

The farm has grown over the years to include so many fun activities for the children. We always try to attend on their 'cowboy weekend'. On the farm's cowboy weekend they have men and women dressed up in old fashion costumes reenacting cowboy shootouts with real guns, shooting blanks!! It's spectacular to watch and experience!

We've talked about visiting other farms to go pick pumpkins, but we always come back to Old Baker Farm. Not that they ever remember us, but we usually have the privilege of talking with the Bakers, it's like visiting with family ~ they're a family of down-home country folks. Plus the cost of admission includes all the activities. We only have to pay extra for concessions, horse back riding, and  if we purchase something from any of the craft-fair type vendors set up on the farm. 

One of my favorite things about coming to Old Baker Farm is that it's a real working farm. The pumpkins aren't trucked in, you actually pick them off the vine. Although there have been years when the harvest was limited and the Bakers did bring in pumpkins from another farm. 

The farm is set up so that visitors ride on a hay-ride to go pick their pumpkins. They have several tractors and trailers running and ONE trailer hooked up to a pair of mules. This year we were blessed to get to ride on the mule-pulled trailer ~ which is our favorite!!

Lydia loved every part of being on the Farm ~ walked around like she owned the place, lol.

Some of the many activities for the children to do includes giants slides, hay bail climbing, a cotton jump, kiddie train rides, horse swings, petting zoo, corn maze, and hay bail maze. Trust me there is no shortage of things to do on this farm!! We spent over four hours playing this year!

This was the first year our oldest was unable to attend due to work obligations. I must admit this new season of life has not been easy for this sentimental mama. But, I'm proud of him and know our job is to simply raise them, and one day they do set out to live their own lives (and that's a good thing).  No matter how much we want to slow time, it just keeps billowing forward, all we can do is hold on for the ride. Of course there's nothing wrong with savoring every special moment we're gifted with until they do 'fly the coop'.

The Baker's really go all out decorating the farm, especially the few old farm houses on the property. (Which are actually lived in by the family.)

Even though big brother couldn't come enjoy the family fun, he did send money to buy the littles ones a treat. They ended up getting the biggest snow cones I've ever seen!

The last picture of the day. 

Daddy loves carnival/fair food and as y'all can see he's passed that love onto our children as well. Fresh squeezed lemonade and kettle corn for everyone to share concluded our family fun day at Old Baker Farm.

I must admit at 31 weeks pregnant, it took a lot of psyching myself up to keep putting one foot in front of the other. I love our tradition of visiting Old Baker Farm and I wouldn't have missed it for anything. We did all 'the things' and my family was super sweet to take 'all the pictures'. (I'm not even sharing half of them, lol.) Another year of visiting Old Baker Farm and another precious memory stored away. It is kind of crazy prepping and getting our family to functions like this, but watching my children having fun and enjoying the season makes it all worth the effort. 

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Back to School Weenie Roast & Campout

Due to life being super busy lately, I'm just now getting to the final post for our Friday the 13th family fun day. By now most of y'all have probably caught on that I love traditions. Well, one of my many crazy traditions that I implemented many moons ago has been our Back to School, Backyard Weenie Roast and Campout. 

Once we complete our first month of school we have a weenie roast and campout to celebrate all our hard work. As my fellow homeschool mama's know getting back into the swing of homeschooling and knocking out those first few weeks can be a major challenge ~ which is why I feel a celebration is  a must.

I grew up camping ~ in a tent! Sorry y'all I just don't believe it's camping if you're in a travel trailer or motor home. To me, true camping is in a tent. Tents have come a long way over the years and this one we have from CORE is amazing!! Once you get it staked, it's four poles and you're done other than attaching the rain fly. 

Everyone loves helping set up the tent, even the little bitty ones. 

Here's another one of those pictures I've taken for years and years and years. Ugh to watch my babies grow up (and our family grow) brings a mixed of wild emotions!

These two little rascals were the most excited, but they ended up going to bed inside after the weenie roast and roasting s'mores. Since my husband had to work the next day; he slept inside and we opted for the three little ones to sleep inside as well so that the big kids could have some 'big-kid' fun.

It was a very long day with the apple orchard, the covered bridge, and finally the weenie roast and campout, but my oldest daughter was a little energizer bunny helping set up all the food for our homeschool celebration. 

This year I opted to create a serving tray for the s'mores. This worked perfect for quick and easy assembly!

I love this picture!! My father-in-law has this cute little truck for piddling around the property. The kids used it to fill up with sticks for the bonfire. 

Yes, at one point our little bonfire turned into a massive flame, lol. No worries we were all safe and all weenies were salvaged.

Not all my kids love s'mores, but in my opinion no weenie roast is complete without the presence of s'mores! 

I mean what's not to love?? Char broiled gooey marshmallows, melted chocolate and crunchy graham crackers. Yeah I'm a sucker for nostalgia!

Okay y'all here's the nitty gritty of the conclusion of our Friday the 13th family fun adventures: it was ALL drama. and a story for the books! After our weenie roast and s'mores the kids played some after-dark tag while the older folks started cleaning up. Then we put the little bitty ones to bed and the big kids and I headed into the tent to enjoy our sleep outdoors in the backyard. 

Due to it being soooo hot I opted not to put the rain fly on the tent (BIG mistake ~ insert groan). I had checked multiple weather apps as well as t.v stations and radio stations for the overnight forecast and there was ZERO chance of rain!!!!!! When 11:45 pm rolled around, I was awakened to it feeling like someone was spitting in my ear. {{ugh}} Y'all I was literally about to get on to a child for pulling pranks and NOT sleeping. But, nope it was rain!! Insert massive eye roll!

Once I got my bearings, I frantically woke the kiddos up and told them to grab all the sleeping bags and pillows and to RUN! So our little backyard campout was cut half short due to an unexpected torrential downpour complete with straight-line winds. We all slept indoors that night and when we awoke the next morning our tent had about an inch of rain inside of it. {{sigh}} Thankfully, it was another scorcher of a day and the tent quickly dried out once we draped it over the swing set. 

And there y'all have it, another drama-filled fun day in the life of the Williams family. I really do try, and at this point all I can do is laugh about it. Oh, the stories my kids will have to tell their children one day, lol! Even though my grand plans rarely turn out the way I had envisioned, I'm still going to keep on keeping on, pushing through, making the plans and attempting to make special memories with my family.

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

4th of July with the Family

Our family is BIG on traditions and celebrating the holidays! The 4th of July is no exception. We had high hopes of this years festivities after last years bust of a celebration. I guess you could say our efforts in trying to sell our big house overshadowed everything last year and it was hard to have any fun. To make matters worse, last year, due to some major issues within our community organizers and massive delays we were unable to see the festival fireworks! Now, if you know me, I'm a stickler for fireworks on the 4th and parades at Christmas. So this year my husband went to great lengths to insure our family (or rather me, lol) got to see some fireworks.

Much to my delight we got to watch fireworks not once BUT twice this 4th of July week. We decided to attend the Independence Day Festival in a neighboring town which happened to throw the best fireworks experience I've EVER witnessed as an adult. It will truly be hard to top their fireworks extravaganza in the future! We were able to attend two festivals on account of one community hosting theirs the day before the 4th and the other on the 4th of July.

Our local community that we live in has an all day 4th of July festival beginning with a small parade and fun activities for the kids and concluding with fireworks later in the evening. We typically attend the morning activities, go home BBQ & rest, and then go back for the fireworks. Which is exactly what we did this year.

The first 4th of July festival we attended began with Jolly Rancher Bomb Pops courtesy of daddy who loves to spoil his littles with yummy treats!

 

The kids thought it was so neat that their 'watermelon' flavored popsicles looked like they had seeds inside of them.

The atmosphere was extremely laid back at the first festival. Throughout the evening there were two different amazing live bands performing. Everyone was relaxed and all the littles were running wild ~ there wasn't a stranger on the football field as we waited for the spectacular display of fireworks, which ended up being sinked with appropriate patriotic music. 

Day Two of Our 4th of July Celebrations

I have this picture and the one below it taken every year for many years now. It's fun to watch our family getting bigger and everyone growing up. 😊

I had no idea we were color-coordinated when we left house, lol. Can we say 20 years of marriage.

Lydia did not know what to think of all the animals at the petting zoo.
When the pig started squealing she was ready to leave, lol!

There's just something peculiar about a camel......lol!

My seven year old and 4 year old are ALWAYS all about the food ~ 

so this function we told them they could bring their own pocket money to spend on treats. 

Kettle corn and homemade lemonades were their prize selections.

This one was a sweetie and willingly shared his lemonade with his baby sister! 

(Got to relish in those little moment, lol)

I'm always the one behind the camera, so I had someone snap a picture of me and baby girl. And YES, it was hotter than blue-blazes and you could cut the humidity with a knife hence the lovely glistening of sweat, lol.

The kiddos take after their daddy when it comes to fair food and 

everyone had to get in on all the goodies ~ these three opted for snow cones.

This year was absolutely one of the best 4th of July celebrations our family has ever experienced. 

I took dozens of pictures and it was all I could do to narrow it down to these few 

(and I know I still over- posted). I'm grateful for the memories and the time spent with family, 

but mostly I'm grateful for the freedoms we celebrated this 4th of July.

I won't lie, navigating family functions with a large crew is NOT easy. There is non-stop unique dynamics that most families do not experience, but I wouldn't change it for anything. Nor would I opt to miss out on fun activities just because it's a little harder to make them happen. Thankfully, these two outings were minimal in the drama escapades, but that is rare. To be perfectly honest it's also a matter of perspective too. What most would consider major 'hiccups' is just our norm. So, if you're struggling with getting out there and doing things with your little entourage; it's time to take a leap of faith and just do it. Trust me the more you do it the easier it gets and if we can do it so can you!!

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer