Blueberries! Finn and I went on a Saturday adventure to another new-to-us blueberry farm, Berryfield, in Centerberg on Saturday. It was the best place yet! They were picking Elliot, so a later season more tart berry, but look at them! The bushes were big and quite plentiful. We picked more than a bucket in a fairly short amount of time. And they had “helper buckets” for kids and Finn loved it – he filled his up numerous times and dumped it into the bigger bucket. The farm only had a couple other people there and they played music you could here while picking (Nora Jones and the like). They also grow bluecrop, blueray, and coville though most of those were well picked over. We missed Daddy while he stayed home and worked on projects including cleaning out the garage – which he made great progress!
This week on my day off Finn and I went to Zoombezi for the day and met up with my college friend Kim, her three kids Audrey, Ryan, and Landon and Audrey’s friend Sara and her sitter Sydney. The older girls went off on the big slides so the boys, Kim, and I hung out and the family-oriented areas. It was super hot, the concrete burned our feet, and a great day to cool off in the water (although some of the areas the water was really pretty warm!).
Earlier in the week we took dinner to the Howard’s. Chris’ dad has entered hospice at Kobacker so we took some yummy food and hung out with the Howard’s, Chad, and Nicole for the evening at the Howard home. Finn loved playing with their dogs and crashed with them on the couch toward the end of the night.
Here are a few other shots from the week, including the new football Finn got at Culver’s by redeeming his “scoopie tokens”. He was super stoked. When Kevin and I have been going on date nights, he and Debbie often go to Culver’s for their “date” too 🙂 Afterward they stopped at the park to play with his new ball.
And here are a few others from the week: sprinklers and water fun in the yard, Columbus Commons kids fun day stuffs, art work, and a few from the Sunday concert (Honey and Blue) that I failed to include last week!
I’m loving the new album “Love Remains” by Hillary Scott (of Lady Antebellum) and the Scott Family. It is a christian album with traditional hymns and original songs. It’s really a great album!
And many thanks to Mom for splurging for me, Amy, and Mom to get our toes “beach ready” this week. We had a fun time getting our toes done and then having ice cream and fried pickles after at Graeter’s and City BBQ! Yum!
And now I”m officially caught up on blog posts – I thought this day would never come after being more than 2 months behind. Whew. Vacation ready now!!
Tag Archives: blueberries
July 17, 2016
It’s summertime, which means blueberry picking! We headed out on Saturday morning to a new place, Blue Sky Farms, in Marysville and met up with the Bethune’s. It is a 5-acre patch in the backyard of a family’s home and the entire patch is enclosed in netting! That’s the first time I’d seen that! It was a pretty warm morning, but we were able to pick just over 5 pounds of blueberries (Chandler and Draper varieties). I had high hopes of picking like 20 pounds which wasn’t really possible there as their plants are pretty young still. Although what we did pick were super yummy and pretty big!
Since I had high hopes of picking major quantities of blueberries, we carried on to another blueberry farm south of Columbus in South Bloomfield called Blueberry Valley. This one was entirely enclosed in netting too – and from the highway we were super excited that they would have more fruit to pick. We were sorely disappointed and didn’t pick anything! Most of the fruit wasn’t yet ripe and the workers were weeding the rows (tossing all the large weeds into the grass rows!). So we took some photos, bought a few things from the roadside veggie stand, and headed to Enon. We had a “roadtrip” on our summer bucket list, so we turned this day into that and on our way to Enon looked up other blueberry farms that we could go to en route to Grandma and Grandpa Armstrongs. It wasn’t meant to be though, as the three or four places I found were all closed to allow for ripening. Booooo!!
So we hung out with Grandma and Grandpa Armstrong and checked out the progress they are making on remodeling their new home. It’s looking great! Finn played some baseball in the driveway and we enjoyed a pizza dinner before heading to Young’s Jersey Dairy for some ice cream dessert.
Sunday was a busy day too with a birthday party for Finn’s friend Owen, followed by a small group social day at our house. It was planned for a friends house, but she came down with a bug and rather than cancelling we just decided to host. I didn’t snap too many photos, but Kevin setup the water table, mini pool, bounce house, and tee-ball for the kiddos to play. We were exhausted by the end of the night!
During the week Finn and I headed to Zoombeezi on my day off. This time we arrived when they opened at 10:30 and were there until 7. Wowzer! We packed a lunch and got a nice chair in the shade this time so we could rest a bit. My plan was for Finn to fall asleep in the car on the way home and go right to sleep – but that didn’t work! He was a tired boy though as we had been in the sun and water all day long.
Finn may turn into a fish – as he also got to go down to the Fountains this week downtown with Debbie. In keeping with the water theme he made “Nemo’ and a crab. Kevin and Finn also caught lightning bugs (see if you can find them in our video) and let our last two butterflies go this week.
This week Millcreek exhibited at the Cultivate’16 Trade Show in downtown Columbus at the Convention center. It is one of the largest conventions for the Green Industry in the US. Lucky for me, the convention center is across the street from the North Market, so I was luck to meet up with Kevin for lunch. We had deliciousness from The Little Eater (http://littleeater.com), a vegetarian eatery that makes the most amazing and tasty dishes. I would eat there every day if I could…..
July 12, 2015
FAMILY! This week was all about family! There was an Armstrong family reunion this week in Enon where family from near (Ohio) and far (LA, Texas, Seattle, etc) gathered for a tasty spread of food and fun at Steve and Cookie’s house. The kiddos played with water balloons and enjoyed watching Kevin fill them up all at one time with a fun kit we got at the store. Todd came to Ohio from LA and was able to spend a few days with us at our house too. Finn loved seeing and talking to him and we ventured to a Clippers game one night too. He has only seen him one other time, during the cruise for Brett and Missy’s wedding, which was a year and a half ago! Plus, he loves that he can say his name and he’s pretty happy about it such that he constantly says “Todd, Todd, Todd” on a regular basis.
Finn and I made a blueberry pie one night and took it with us to the reunion. It was delish, and Finn was an excellent helper as his favorite tasks include dumping, mixing, and taste testing (see the video!).
And of course there were plenty of family photos. Here’s where it all began, of course, the Armstrong siblings! Steve, Jim, Dave, Lora, and Mark. And one with the spouses and a couple cousins included too.
And almost all of the cousins. Everyone was there but Sean. Pictured left to right are Megan, Brett, Scot, Ashley, Jared, Kevin, Ryan, Todd, Jason, Juan, Carmen, Dylan, and Kara.
And then there are the cousins kiddos: August, Ora, Pierce, Quinn, Grace, Estelle, Griffin, and Margaret.
Here’s (almost) everyone who was there!
Here are the Scotts – Jessica, Juan, Lora, Jon, Dylan, Carmen, and Kara.
And the Armstrongs: silly Margaret, Megan, Mark, and Ryan.
And a few photos from our trip to the ballpark to see the Clippers with Todd. We ended the weekend with a family dinner at our house. It was a hot day, but a sunny one, so Finn spent some time playing soccer outside with Todd and Grandpa. And one more family photo!
And Finn had a fun week with Debbie too with adventures to a fun play day down at Bicentennial park where he planted seeds, met Lou Seal, and had fun in the sun!