Spring is probably one of the best times of the year in Florida- it’s sunny, warm (not unbearably HOT), everything is blooming and so, so pretty!! And since it is so nice out; we have been trying to take advantage of the beautiful weather (aside from the rain today, yesterday and Monday) and have found ourselves outside as much as possible.
Our afternoons have looked a whole lot like this lately…
I know that it’s already Tuesday but I can’t help but share at least part of our “berry” good weekend with you all! Jamie took Friday off (yippee for a long weekend) so we had a ton of great time together. We went to the zoo (more on that later), picked a ton of fresh strawberries and honestly just relaxed and enjoyed our time together.
Saturday we went in search of the Oviedo farmers market; we have been going to the Winter Park farmers market pretty regularly but wanted to try something different this week. We had directions, we had a location but we still weren’t able to find it. We ended up at what appeared to be a farm but there certainly wasn’t any market there. So a little diappointed but not defeated we chalked the farmers market up to a loss and headed onto plan B- strawberries from Pappy’s Patch!! There is a pick-your-own strawberry (and blueberries, although they aren’t quite in season) patch located in Oviedo that I have been wanting to try and since we were close we decided to go for it. Man am I sure glad that plan A was a bust!! It meant that we got to take home this-
and that our house smelled like fresh, sweet strawberries all day long! It was so much fun we are planning another trip for Friday (Jamie has the day off again- yippee). Honestly, if you are close by pack up your kiddos (if you have them, if you don’t that just means more for you) and run not walk there…
Jay loved helping us “pick” the berries. Although, he wasn’t quite on board with the pick and put in the box concept; he was more of a pick-and-eat kind of guy if you know what I mean. He picked what he could and if he couldn’t get the strawberry off of the bush he just bit it right off- he’s nothing if not resourceful!! We paid for extra when we were leaving since I am sure he consummed close to a pound while we were picking (check out his shirt if you want proof, his white shirt was the only downside to this not being a planned outing).
while someone took my baby and replaced him with this adorable little guy… Seriously, when did he become a little boy??
We certainly are not too “cool” to show our excitement about Friday around here! I did a little happy dance getting out of bed this morning- because “its FRIDAY!” Yahoo for weekends and Daddy being home :-)
There will be no pinching for us- we are sporting our green today! Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone!!
p.s. Do you know how difficult it is to get a “self portrait” while holding a toddler and juggling a massive camera? It’s hard I tell ya, really hard!
Often times I find myself in the kitchen during the weekends. Making bread for the week, experimenting with a new cookie project or convincing Jamie to tackle some type of food thing that I am too intimidated to try on my own. Well this past weekend was no exception; however, we did have a little bit of perfect weather/ bike riding/ outside enjoying time mixed in too. It was more of the usual and wow it was wonderful!
We cranked out some whole wheat bread, homemade yogurt (it’s delicious but we haven’t mastered the consistency yet- guess we just need more practice), a super yummy tomato soup (with farmers’ market veggies), experimented by making these (also with farmers’ market veggies)
and we took these
and made this…
Don’t worry, we let him enjoy more than his fair share of strawberries straight from the baskets. They were so delicious, I just hope they still have some at the farmers’ market this weekend when we go. I have plans for more freezer Jam (btw- I just used the recipe from the pectin box, I know not really original, but it was easy peasy and so good), fruit leather and there is a super yummy strawberry cupcake recipe that I am dying to try too… I’ll let you know if any of that actually happens :-)
We certainly hope your weekend was as sweet as ours and that your week is shaping up nicely too!
I seriously take too many pictures every day!! I tried limiting myself to just ten yesterday for the 10 on 10 project but failed miserably. My 10 on 10 turned out to be more like 63 on 10. Oh well, what can I say- at least we are well documented these days :-)
I left out a few yesterday that were too good not to share so here’s my 6 more on 11…
p.s. thank goodness it’s Friday!!!!
One of my favorite blogs lately is Under the Sycamore (if you have time check it out, it’s simply lovely). I check my reader a few times a day to see what’s new and I always read hers if I see something new. So last night before heading to bed I saw that she was going to be participating in A Bit of Sunshine’s Ten on Ten project . I looked it up to see what it was all about (very simply- take 10 pictures, one every hour on the hour, and post them on the 10th of the month) and was intrigued. I figured I’d give it a whirl too, after all it would give me a reason to take and post some pictures within the same day (something that I haven’t had a lot of time to do lately) and maybe it might stretch my creativity a bit too. Well it was rainy most of the day (ie the light in the house was pretty bad) and my pictures didn’t really stretch my creative side but rather chronicled my day today. Either way, good and bad, since I took them here they are…
I am hoping to remember next month and maybe to stretch myself a little more creatively next time. At least that’s the plan for now…
Happy almost Friday to ya!
the perreault family 