Frogs, Snails, and Berries

Monday, July 28, 2008

We have spent more time around the house lately. We’ve gotten lazier, and with no obligations, it is easy to while the days away.

Katie loves to go to the mailbox at the end of our driveway to check for mail. Today she seemed to take a long time down there, and I started to wonder where she was, so Zoe and I walked down to find her. She was squatted by the ditch next to our mailbox, and she gestured to us to be quiet. She explained (quietly) that while she was checking for mail, she looked down and saw two little frogs looking up at her. When she had gotten closer, they jumped away, and she was trying to find them again. Zoe and I squatted down next to her, and finally spotted the 2 little froggies. The three of us spent a lot of time watching them.

Zoe is pointing at the frogs:

While we were out there, we remembered that Matt had found a raspberry bush when he'd visited the other day. We decided to check to see if there were anymore ripe berries. We examined the bush, and found quite a few ripe ones – I believe they were black raspberries. Then we decided to spend some time looking for other bushes. Well, they were all over the property. It was like we'd been blind up until then. We spent about 2 hours picking red and black raspberries. Every time we’d think we were done, we’d find more. At some point, I mentioned we might have enough for a pie. Katie thought this would be really cool. When we went inside, she started looking up recipes on the internet, and found a recipe for berry cobbler. We decided to make that instead, since as she said, we’re not really pie people. She made a list of all the things we needed, and we went to the store to get everything. That night we had a delicious homemade berry cobbler.

Here are Katie and Zoe finding lots of berries:

Zoe liked to eat them almost as fast as we could pick them:

Admiring the cobbler:

While we picked berries, Zoe also collected snails. She named the first one Tiny Tim. She was so excited, she had to take it inside to show Jerry and Doug. Then she lost it – in the house. This did not make Doug happy because he hates bugs. Zoe came back outside, very sad about the loss of her friend. Then she found another one. This one she name Chock-ro (Katie told me how to spell that). She brought him inside, and Doug and Katie report that she smashed this one. Guess they didn't mean that much to her after all.

When we out to buy our cobbler ingredients we stopped by the library.

We've spent a lot of time here at the library during this vacation:

Here is a picture of the kids reading on the gazebo in front of the library. A rare moment of harmony: