I pronounce the P in raspberry.

My sister, my mom and I picked raspberries yesterday. A lot of raspberries. We were raised to be gatherers. My grandma taught my mom and she taught us. I love eating jam that I've made from berries I picked. Here's a pic of our harvest.

 Today is Matt's Birthday so we made posters for him while he was at work and hung them on the fence so he would see them when he got home. We are going swimming tonight and having a BBQ to celebrate Matt & his brothers birthday. Hopefully we have a fun time and the weather cooperates!

Calling All Superheroes!!

Today is little C's 3rd birthday. We had a fun superhero themed party for her last week. Here's the invitation.

I tried to take a picture of all the little superheroes, but it was impossible. If someone knows how to get 9 kids 5 and under to stand still, in the same place, at the same time, for a picture, let me know! This pic has the most kids in it. The birthday girl was crying inside at this point, I believe, after whacking her head on the edge of the granite counter. It was a rough day for her, all around. 

I made capes & masks for the little superheroes, instead of giving out candy as treat bags. The capes were a bigger hit than the masks. I had a hard time judging the head sizes for the kids, and hardly any of the masks fit. I used my own children as templates and they have either abnormally large or small heads, so it didn't work out quite as well as I had hoped.

Here's a shot showing the capes. The kids all had their initial on the back. I was really happy with how cute they turned out. Miss C was still grumpy at this point and refused to look at the camera. Miss A is quite the ham, on the other hand.

We had an obstacle course of sorts where the kids raced marbles through pool noodles, threw a ball through hula hoops suspended in the tree, had to bounce on a ball with a handle around some traffic cones, then I was going to have the kids walk the plank (over the kiddie pool), but in the mad rush before the kids arrived, I forgot and then couldn't get it set up in time. I think they had fun anyway!

The kiddie pool had been filled with this homemade bubble concoction, which was basically water with 5 cups of Dawn dish soap and a little bottle of glycerine I bought at the drug store. When the wind had died down, it made some nice big bubbles. Of course, C sat down in the pool and got fantastically soapy and wet. She had a blast with the big bubbles!

We had rainbow themed food, since the superhero capes were a rainbow of colours. I bought a package of rainbow licorice and my (almost 3 year old) nephew probably ate 10 pieces. The rainbow jell-o was fun. I messed up on the bottom purple layer, but got the hang of it after that. It really looked cute! The rainbow fruit kabobs were also a hit. We had hotdogs and veggies, but I only took pictures of the rainbow foods.

Instead of doing a superhero cake, I decided to make a rainbow one. I bought a bottle of pink bubblegum flavoring at a little kitchen store in town and used that in the frosting instead of vanilla. What 3 year old doesn't like bubblegum? I personally thought that the cake looked a lot better than it tasted but whatever, it was a party for my little sweetie!

The birthday girl got to enjoy the first piece of birthday cake. Her favorite was the purple layer.

My sweet little "C" has been a joy to us since she joined our family 3 years ago. She has the most adorable tiny speaking voice and is always telling the rest of her family that she loves us. She is loving and kind. We gave her a package of 3 Lip Smackers lip balm (oh, how our girls love lip balm...) today and she let her sister choose which one she wanted, without us even suggesting her share it. What a sweetie! Happy Birthday, little missy! We love you!