Didn't Rain on my Parade

It's been raining ridiculous amount here this week.  So much that John was draining some water out of the pool with the hose.  And while he was draining, ANOTHER rain storm came through.  And the level of the pool stayed exactly the same - water coming IN to the pool at the same rate as water EXITING the pool.

It rained so much this spring that strawberry picking season was delayed.  And it seems like it was really short.  So short we didn't go.  Which didn't make me sad because I hate picking strawberries, and Dex doesn't really eat them.  But Erin.  Oh, ERIN.  That girl can eat her some strawberries.  But still, not enough to justify going to pick.

We did go pick blueberries on Saturday, though.  Those are easy enough.  And Dexter likes them.  Our past couple years of picking he has picked enough to fill his belly, but put zero in his bucket.  But this year he was surprisingly helpful and managed to fill his belly AND Erin's belly, AND he even got 20 berries or so in his bucket.  I was impressed.

How many blueberries you got in there, chubby cheeks?

The running commentary from this one as he is picking is priceless.  "That one is blue.  That one is green!  OH - I forgot to look when I was picking!  I picked a green one!"

Lots of green berries still on the plants, so I think they will be open for another few days at least.

Everyone say "Blueberry!"

Cute Stuff here was pretty content to sit in the back pack and have blueberries shoved in her mouth every couple minutes.  After she was sick last weekend, she was still a bit dehydrated all week.  I think she pooped one time all week, and we were beginning to get a little concerned.  Blueberries turned her right around.

"Did you just take a picture of me eating a blueberry?"  he yells with glee.

Erin intently studying the blueberry plants.  "How do I get those berries from there in to my mouth..."

Ah, screw it.  I'll just try to eat this stick.  Someone will come shove a berry in my mouth soon, anyway.

No way!  Did my brother just TOUCH me?  ON PURPOSE?

Brotherly love makes her very, very happy.

In the afternoon I packed the kids up and headed over to a friends' house so I could get Erin an air conditioned nap (our AC got replaced on Saturday) before our big PARADE DEBUT.  We walked in the Darlington Independence Day parade on Saturday evening with our friends from the Bel Air moms group.  All the kids rode their bikes, and wore their Bear tee shirts.  So we Biked for Bear.  It was fun.  It was hot.  BUT - it didn't rain on our parade!  Dex said he had fun.  I have no idea what his favorite part was.  My guess would be the playground at the end of the parade?  :-)

Pre-parade dinner picnic.  What the hell, the kid has only pooped seven times today.  May as well give her some more blueberries...

Erin swiped Dexter's earmuffs for the parade.  Wasn't sure how loud it was going to be.

Dexter spent the entire parade, as he put it, "Behind the thing I REALLY liked."  Our friend Jordan's battery powered Gator.

Littlest Strider rider.  She was OMGCUTE

This is most of the group.  We are certainly not professional parade marchers, but we had a fun evening.  The kids were hot and tied and happy.  I was hot and tired and also EXHAUSTED.  And happy to come home to a new, fully functional, much quieter fancy air conditioner.