berries, a birthday and a lot of fun and relaxation...

Alan LOVES gooseberry pie and so this year, for Alan's 32nd birthday, I really wanted to make a gooseberry pie from scratch using Alan's great-grandmothers crust recipe. We filled that entire bowl below with gooseberries from our yard and John and I cut the stems off each end of every single berry! It actually was really fun to do that with him (rarely do I get him to sit for that long and spend time together:). I did okay, but my sweet mother in law Pat rescued me a couple times when I was unsure. What a blessing she is to me as I learn the ropes of growing food, canning, and making lots of yummy food with it! It had been a very stressful last month and so it was so nice to take some time to relax and celebrate his birthday with family and just hang out and enjoy the wonderful summer time!

notice John's black eye:(

Alan's parents got him the "Weed Dragon" to take out our never ending weeds!

Romeo and Juliet ........? so cute!
The next morning was Alan's actual birthday so the four of us got to celebrate for the rest of the weekend! We spent the day out on Greg and RaeJean's boat and enjoyed the sun and did a bit of wakeboarding and lots of swimming. We rode our bikes to church on Sunday and the boys all fell asleep...some inside and some outside;)

Ahhhh....the summertime breeze.....

Ten on Ten July...sort of...

So I have to admit, I almost did not do today's 10 on 10. I just didn't have it in me. I have a special friend coming to town to stay with us and I just had to get ready. I told the boys to go outside. Before long, I looked outside and for the next couple hours, this is what they did. It was so funny to watch them and the only thing they required of me was a couple changes of clothes..and for Eli, he took care of that all by himself;). I did take a couple fun ones after that for a couple hours, but then I was done. So, you have ten or so pics and it was throughout the day and it I DID see the beauty in my day...so aside from not every hour... I think I filled the requirement for July.

Our First Honey!