Getting messy with crafts

Last year I found The Crafty Crow. It is a great site that hosts many different bloggers' craft ideas. Avery and I have taken advantage of some of them and enjoyed getting messy.


Paper mache bowls. We used a glue and water mixture to cover a bowl with tissue paper.


The finished bowl. Avery was quite proud of it.


Painting on plexi-glass. Once the painting is done, you can take another piece of paper and make a print of the paint.


He told me he was washing himself with paint. It's on his face because he tried to sniff it and got a little too close.


Sticking various things to contact paper and then covering it up. It makes a nice window display. It's also great for dexterity. He would put things on and then pull them back off.

We used the last container of freezer jam......

Yesterday I enjoyed my english muffin covered with homemade raspberry freezer jam, like I do most mornings. However, there was a brief moment of panic when I realized that I was eating the last of it. We made our strawberry jam this year, but with moving and all the other busyness summer brings we never got around to picking our raspberries and making jam. I love the strawberry jam, but raspberry is my favorite. Since the summer berries were long gone, I thought I wasn't going to have any more this year. However, I discovered through a little searching that there are fall bearing raspberries! There are raspeberry bushes out there that bloom continuously until the first frost. So we packed up the family and headed to the closest farm that had fall bearing raspberries. Because it was later in the season, we were also able to go to the apple orchard and pick honeycrisps! It was a fun day and we were all tired out by the end. But... I have my jam!


Golden raspberries! We didn't even know they existed. We ended up picking both varieties and I think golden are even better than the traditional red ones. They are much sweeter.


Picking his first apple. He loved running to the trees to help fill our bag.






Here's the new ride- with an expanding family we had to find something to accommodate 2 kids, a dog, 2 ferrets, and all of our things so we decided on the Mazda MPV. I never thought I'd be a van mom, but there really aren't many options when you need the room. Oh well, Avery loves playing with the automatic side doors.

I realize there aren't any pictures of us picking raspberries since that is what this whole post is about, but we were really busy picking enough pints for a whole years worth of jam! I do wish I had taken a picture of Avery when we were done. He loved picking the berries since they were at his level. He was covered in raspberry goo by the end of the day.

Alzheimer's Walk

This weekend we joined The Wunderlin Walker's for the Alzheimer's Walk in memory of Grandma Wunderlin. We braved the rain and walked to help raise money for the cause. There were over 200 walkers there and a total of over $32,000 was raised. Grandpa walked again this year and we were all so proud of him. He's doing well for having had a stroke a few months ago and for nearing his 87th birthday. I enjoy this walk because it's a chance to get together with family and celebrate Grandma and Grandpa and the family they started.

From the mouth of a two year old...

Now that Avery is talking more and more he's been entertaining us with his thoughts. I thought I would share a few of his humorous moments.
Because we're in full swing potty training we seem to spend a lot of time in the bathroom no matter where we are. Avery seems to have fun commentary with each trip to the public restroom.
One of those times he happened to be in a public restroom with me. We walked in and of course he thought he should comment on the smell since there was a lady in the stall adding to the already great smell in the bathroom. Our conversation went something like this:
A: Smell it mama.
B: Yes, Avery we're in a bathroom.
A: Smell, giraffe.
B: No, there aren't any giraffe in here.
A: See, giraffe. Avery wants to see the giraffe!
By this point I'm really trying to hold the laugh in so I don't embarrass the lady next to us, who apparently smelled like a giraffe to Avery.

Another time Scott and Avery were in the bathroom. He loves going in with Scott so he can use the urinal. On this particular trip, he quickly noticed something was missing from it and yelled out, "No cake there!" I guess this urinal had no urinal cake in it.

The last one happened at dinner last night. We were saying grace before the meal and I stopped and said, "What are you thankful for, Avery?" He said, "thanks for elephants........... and hugs." Both of which are very important to a little boy!

Labor Day fun

For Labor Day weekend we met Grandma and Grandpa Davis in Sand Point Michigan. It's another beautiful area of Lake Superior near the Pictured Rock National Lake shore. The weather was perfect for enjoying the lake.


Avery's favorite part of the beach was when Scott dug him holes


Enjoying s'mores


We took a ride in Grandpa's inflatable kayak. It was a profitable trip as Scott found $10 on the bottom of the Autrain River.


Scott's still learning to swim, so we got him extra big arm floaties. Okay, those are actually the inflatable kayak seats but they made perfect floaties.


Enjoying a moment in the hammock


Happy Birthday Grandpa! We enjoyed a fantastic graham cracker cake that Grandma made.