Last weekend, Luke, Grace, Caleb, and I were able to go pick strawberries at DK Orchards in Conklin, MI. (Thank you SO much, Wendy, for watching Ava and Jaden – it made things SO much easier!)
We picked 12 quarts at $1.25/quart. This made 12 jars of freezer jam, 2 4-cup baggies of sliced berries for shortcake, about a gallon freezer bag full of individually frozen berries, and a bowl full of fresh, sliced berries for our consumption. We love strawberries!
We scored some coupons for free Auntie Anne’s pretzels, so I took the kiddos to the mall last week for a fun morning.
I’ve never had Auntie Anne’s before. Can I just say that the pretzels are HUGE!? The kids didn’t need much more for lunch, because their pretzels were so big!
This is a real-life picture of our kiddos, being goofy. Well, at least Caleb’s being goofy…
Then we spent time at the play area, which is actually kind of stressful for me on busy-ish days. I find myself counting “one, two, three, four” over and over as I’m trying to keep track of all the kids. It’s definitely trickier now that Jaden’s off and running, too. He ran out the entrance of the play area at least twice – little escapee!
Even though this last one is a little blurry, I love it! It’s my Caleb – leaping with abandon. Love that boy!
Luke recently had the opportunity to switch departments within Steelcase, where he’s worked for more than 8 years. His old group, Global Product Data Solutions, threw him a surprise picnic to congratulate him on the move and thank him for all his work in their group.
The kids and I lured him to a park. I thought I was sneaky enough, but apparently he suspected a party. 
Oh, well.
This is the cake that the department had made for him…(Some of the code is wrong, but the idea was so clever!)
And here’s Ava thoroughly enjoying her cake…
I think this is nearly the entire group of people who attended the picnic…
Thanks, GPDS, for the great send-off!
Two weeks ago, the kids and I were able to go to the zoo with our dear friends, the Perrys. Here are a few pictures from our day…
At the very beginning of June (yep – I’m behind on blogging!), Luke had a conference in Chicago, so the kids and I were able to spend a weekend with Luke’s parents and two of his siblings in Vernon Hills, IL – just north of the city. We had a great time!
We enjoyed watching Zach (Luke’s little brother – age 12) play baseball on Saturday morning. Too bad I couldn’t get a good picture of him! He did an outstanding job as pitcher. Way to go, Z!
Anyway, here are some pictures of the kiddos from the game…
Later that afternoon, Mom Rumley and I took a trek to IKEA while the kiddos napped. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an escalator for carts before – fun!
And that evening, Luke and I left the kiddos with their grandparents, aunt, and uncle and went to downtown Chicago for a date night! How fun! We ate at the Rainforest Cafe, which was scrumptious (but noisy). Then we walked from there down to the Navy Pier and back. As we were just a few blocks from the shore, it started downpouring – and we had left our umbrella in the car! Thankfully, though it was a heavy rain, it was pretty warm. So we just continued our walk! It was so wonderful to have some alone time in a place we’ve never explored together.
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