Summer Bucket List: Strawberry Patch

Summer is right around the corner and the weather has been beautiful the past few weeks! We are taking full advantage of the parks everyday, Farmers Market on the weekend, we have our first camping trip planned and a possible road trip! We don't want to let the summer of 2014 slip away from us! I haven't blogged in more than two months and a lot has happened! 

On May 28th, Jason found out that he was accepted into the nursing program at LBCC! He was so excited! The look on his face when he read the acceptance email was priceless and he absolutely deserves it! He worked so hard this past year receiving all A's in his classes and scoring high on his application to the nursing program. I am so proud of him. He starts the nursing program at the end of September so we still will have a fun summer to be able to do things.  He is still working full time at the hospital for now and most likely will continue to work there through nursing school.

Two days later we found out that Norah's adoption was finalized in the courts the previous Tuesday, May 27th. We were so thrilled and relieved so be an official family! She just turned 9 months a few days ago and started crawling just a week into 8 months old! Now she is pulling up on furniture like crazy and last night I even saw her feet just barely moving along the furniture as she tried to walk. With her it literally seems like one day I am saying, "she's not doing such and such yet" and literally the next day she is! 

Last weekend we went and looked at a minivan. We had been wanting to buy one for awhile to have more space in case I needed to nanny another child while Jason is in nursing school. It was really nice and a very good price so we are officially a minivan family. I am so grateful for all the blessings that have been put on our family in the past few years. God is so good!

Koa is getting so big and seems to be turning into a little kid with an adult vocabulary overnight! He will be turning 3 in just 5 weeks!

One thing we were able to check off our Summer Bucket List yesterday was visiting the Strawberry Patch! We headed out to Peoria Farms with the whole family, I strapped Norah on my back in the Ergo (where she promptly took her morning nap), grabbed a huge box for our berries and went to work! Koa totally got it this year. We explained to him what ripe berries looked like and he was thrilled to no end to help us fill the box! He literally would wander off like 4-5 rows away, pick one strawberry and then run back to us showing it off before dropping it in the box!

When we first got there I was taking pictures of everyone's berries they were picking and a little later, after I had put my camera down, Koa came to me holding this berry and saying excitedly, "look at this one mom!!" I told him how nice it was, but it was clearly not the reaction he was looking for since he told me, "probably need to take a picture of it!" I died! This kid is too cute and keeps Jason and us laughing so much.

 

Norah's sparkly Toms just peeking out of the Ergo, but that girl was snoring away on my back!

 

When we were finishing up picking berries, I told Koa, "lets play a game! How bout you pick the berries and I eat them!" He paused for a moment and then replied, "prob'ly I pick em and I eat em." Smart kid.

We had a blast and it made me feel like we were officially kicking off the summer! 

 

And.... just because I LOVE planning birthday parties and I LOVE Pinterest, here are a few ideas that we have for Koa and Brock's 3rd birthday! Their first party was Construction, their 2nd was Elmo and now 4th of July is the theme.  Enjoy!

Happy ALMOST weekend!