Saturday, April 30, 2011

Strawberry Picking

Today the girls and I went strawberry picking at Wood's Orchard.

The girls LOVED taking the hayride back and forth to the strawberry field.

We were the only people in the strawberry field.

Time to start picking the strawberries.

The field was filled with big red juicy strawberries!

Jocelyn picked handfuls of them.

Then she took her strawberries down to Madison who was in charge of the box.

Madison and our box full of strawberries ready to take home!

When we got home we made:

Strawberry Freezer Jam

4 pints strawberries (8 cups)
2 1/2 to 3 cups of sugar
1 package of strawberry gelatin
1 envelope of Knox gelatin

Rinse strawberries, remove stems. Put berries in a large saucepan and crush with a potato masher. Pour sugar over the berries. Heat the mixture to the boiling point over high heat, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to medium and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring often. Stir in gelatin. Remove from heat and let stand for 30 minutes. Spoon mixture into containers. Let stand until mixture reaches room temperature, then cover with lids. Store in refrigerator or freezer; jam thickens as it cools. Keep in freezer up to 3 months or refrigerator up to 3 weeks. Thaw by leaving it in the refrigerator.

Strawberry Trifle

Angel Food Cake
2 lbs. of strawberries
Filling:
1 8 oz. Cool Whip
1 large package of instant vanilla pudding
1 cup of milk
1 cup of sour cream

Mix the cool whip, pudding, milk and sour cream together to make the filling. Then in a glass bowl, layer it by pinching off pieces of the angel food cake into bite size pieces putting that down, then a layer of strawberries, then a layer of the filling, repeating until you are out of ingredients.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Quilt Snacks

Today Madison read The Quiet Quail to Jocelyn's preschool class for Q Week. We made cheese quilts for a snack and then let the kids make their own cracker quilts.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Cape Henry Inn Photo Shoot

Our friend Drew was so kind to do a photo shoot with us at Cape Henry Inn. Here are some of the great shots he got:

Thank you so much Mr. Drew for taking these beach pictures for us. We love them!

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Last day at Cape Henry Inn

This morning we headed down to the water to enjoy our last day at the beach.

The girls made another awesome sand castle.

Jocelyn had a close encounter with a ladybug. ;)

It started to rain, so we packed up and went to look at the lighthouses.

The rain stopped just long enough for us to see the lighthouses and...

enjoy a little more time by the water.

What a great mini vacation with my girls.

Monday, April 25, 2011

Cape Henry Inn

This morning we woke up and went to play on the playground while we waited for our friends Mrs. Nyx, Jude, Mr. Drew and Amelia to come spend the day at the beach with us.

Our little ladybug girl found her own little ladybug friend.

The kids had a great time playing together at the beach.

Amelia is such a cutie pie.

After dinner we got cleaned up and headed back down the boardwalk to take some beach pictures at sunset.

Mr. Drew is a great photographer and was kind enough to teach me a few things and take beach pictures of us.

The girls wanted to practice their poses.

We can't wait to see the beach pictures Mr. Drew took.

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Easter 2011

We are so happy to have Daddy with us this Easter since he was deployed last year.

Mommy and her girls ready to go to church.

Happy to get to spend Easter morning with Clay, but sad that we had to drop him off at the airport right after church so that he could go to Texas for 2 more weeks of training. We miss him very much when he is away, but are so proud of how hard he works and how well he provides for our family.

After we dropped Daddy off at the airport we came home and got ready for a YUMMY Easter meal with Miss Shayla, her mom, her sister and her sister's boyfriend. We decorated the table with flowers we picked from our yard.

Then the girls and I took Miss Shayla and Miss Shanice and headed to The Cape Henry Inn in Virginia Beach for a few days. We were all so happy to get away and stay in our little beach cottage.

Time to check out...

the beautiful views.

The girls couldn't wait to check out the water.

The girls couldn't wait to get playing so we changed out of our pretty Easter dresses and...

got into our swimsuits.

Miss Shayla helped the girls make a sandcastle.

Then we walked down the beach to find seashells, but Jocelyn found a horseshoe crab or at least parts of one. ;)

Miss Shayla showed the girls how to do cartwheels while we watched the sunset.

What a wonderful Easter!