Coffee With Elly

On Thursday, the kids and I went and picked 9.5 pounds of raspberries at a local berry farm. We ate quite a few with ice cream, just plain, and with cream and sugar, but this morning Phinehas and I made jam! I know ten pounds of berries and 6 cups of jam is a laughable quantity to serious jam makers, but we didn't get around to making jam at all last year, so I guess I'm feeling pretty good about myself. We actually have a lot of berries left, and I'd like to make more, but I'm out of pectin, so I'll have to make a supply run first. Hopefully before the rest of the berries get eaten!

I think one of the most rewarding "crafts" I've ever done with my kids is make bubble solution for them. Then you just watch them play and the only mess you have is soap... Which cleans up with water! Hooray! I have sprung for glycerine, though - it really does make the bubbles grow larger and last longer.

Phinehas turned five this year, which he is very proud of in the way that little kids are always proud of turning a year older - as if they did it themselves, on purpose. I told the kids that we were NOT going to do a huge kids birthday party for every birthday this year. But I figured I had  to do one for Phinehas' fifth birthday... and Ezra is turning 10 this year, which is a big one, too... So instead of having 3 big birthday parties as we did last year, we'll only have 2. Phew. But having birthday parties is getting easier as all of the kids get older and because we've developed a routine - corn dog lunch, play, open presents, play, cake and ice-cream, play. Because most of Phinehas' friends have siblings who are my older kids' friends, I just invited the child and their mother and siblings. So we ended up having 28 people over! It was a little crazy, but very rewarding. My friend, Joanna, stayed afterward and helped me clean up and then we sat and visited on ...

Family Camp was unexpectedly great this year. I say "unexpectedly" because last year it rained half of the week and then we got the stomach flu. Unfortunately, this wasn't too unusual, although last year was especially ugly toward the end. I say "great" because this year was the opposite: the weather was amazing and NOBODY got sick! Except for Elena, the kids were all old enough to be allowed some measure of freedom. Even Phinehas was frequently seen madly pedaling his little bicycle back and forth between the cabins of the trees and the cabins of the meadow or playing in the gym or on the playground. I was even able to assign one of the older boys to babysit Elena for an hour so I could go play mini-golf with a couple of friends - amazing! Monica and Phinehas and Elena really enjoyed the little kids campfire every evening. Judah and Ezra were able to participate in numerous activities: the track meet, the basketball round robin tournament, and the sandcastl...