Berry Picking!

After Max and I went strawberry picking, I vowed to

return for the raspberries.  But, darn if those farms

seems to only have week day hours.  Thankfully,

grandparents to the rescue! I saw on Facebook that

Lynd's fruit farm would be picking black and red

raspberries last Friday...so I suggested it to Mims

and Grandpa.  They made the nearly 40 minute

trek to Blue Frog Farm (part of the larger

Lynd's fruit farm) in Johnston.

Mims did a great job taking pictures of their whole

adventure....so even if I wasn't there - I definitely

got the gist of what was going on :)  thanks Mims!

 They started out by picking red raspberries....

I think Max's job was to spot the berries and

figure out which ones were ripe.

They eventually made their way over the hill

to the blueberry patch. 

(Sidenote: isn't Max adorable in his little hat?

I just can't even with that.)

 

 

They eventually ended up in the black raspberry patch.  I think the

black raspberries were a little more tricky to pick because of the

thorns...but all in all they came home with plenty of berries!

The berry express (aka grandpa's car) dropped some off at

Auntie Stacy's house, 3 quarts at our house, and enough

left over for Mims and Grandpa too.

I promised Grandpa that I would make something with

all these berries...so late Friday night I turned to Pinterest.

I found a delicious cobbler recipe and went to work!

I have to say it smelled so good cooking....and

even though I don't usually eat any kind of fruit pie -

I partook in several pieces of this (with lots of

whipped cream/vanilla ice cream). Grandpa and

(even Poppy) were raving about it - so I'm feeling

real good about my cobbler skills right now.

(I may have likened myself to Martha Stewart

on Snapchat...too far? Never.)

 

I have to say...I'm so grateful for grandparents that

continue to take Max (and us!) on adventures!  We

have so many fun things planned this summer...

Cannon Beach! Fourth of July parade! Alum Creek!

Zoombeezi Bay! And we honestly, couldn't do it

without them! It's a million times easier (and more

enjoyable!) with extra sets of hands and eyes and hearts!

 

If you have a berry farm near you, it's a

definite must do before the season is over!

And take your grandparents! :)

xoxo

Memorial Day weekend

(I realize this post is late in coming too...but I already had the pictures

and most of the words prepared...so better late than never

on blog post!)

For Memorial Day, Max and Mama headed to Dayton for the long

weekend. We left Papa Rob at home to

put together our new shed and tear down our old one!

It's sometimes just easier to get stuff done when

your three year old isn't running all around

trying to "help" but actually getting into everything.

Auntie Stacy was originally going to come home for the

weekend too, but in the end decided to stay in Columbus.

That means I got my parents all to myself!  And

I'm not even going to lie - it was glorious!! My mom

and dad catered to my every whim :) Starting with

a visit to the Deer Run pool on Friday evening

and ending with Skyline chili for dinner.

 

 Sadly, upon arriving at the pool, we learned that the

heater was not on and the water was FRIGID.

I could only manage to get my feet in and thus

sat on the side. Max managed to get some of his

body in - but mostly just wanted to boss Mims

and Grandpa around and "push them in".

They were amazing sports about it - and actually

let him, but man, you guys, it was like polar bear cold.

Saturday, we drove to Grandma's Gardens where

I picked out a few more flowers (while silently,

hoping that Papa Rob wouldn't kill me).  This

garden store actually also has goats you can feed.

Normally, Max just wants us to feed them but this

time he actually did it himself! I was so proud of him!

 

Grandpa toured Max around while Mims and I

made our selections and managed to fill up

the entire back of Grandpa's car!

We headed into downtown Lebanon after

the garden store so I could shop at a store

called Blume.  We went there during the

winter holiday and I've been thinking

about it nonstop.  I managed to purchase

just a tee shirt...but man, I could have

bought most everything. Then, we walked

down to the train station. Max was in heaven exploring

all the trains. The engine, the passenger car, and

caboose...we did them all!  

 Saturday evening, Mims and Grandpa had a retirement

party to go to - so, Max and I hung out with Poppy.

We drove to Chick-fil-A for dinner.

Max shared his ice cream cone with Poppy and Poppy

let him do some paper shredding and stapling (two of his

favorite things to do). It was so cute to see the two 

of them interacting. 

On Sunday morning, we drove to one of my favorite spots, 

called The Glen Helen Raptor Center. They rehab 

injured raptors (like owls, hawks, and eagles). 

Max liked pointing out each of the birds in their 

homes and then promptly told us he wanted to go home. :)

Thankfully, we convinced Max that we should stay 

in Yellow Springs a bit longer :)  We found an 

awesome park area (part of their school I believe)...

and he was loving the climbing structures. 

They also had an awesome sunflower/peace

mural. You can kind of see some of it in the picture 

below. After the playground we did some shopping

in the record store (Grandpa's choice), and the toy 

store (Max's choice).  Mims bought him a butterfly

net and bug box! 

We ate lunch in the Subway before heading home.

Max was asleep before we were even on the highway!

Our actual Memorial Day was spent with a trip to Whole

Foods and Antiques village (while Max played with 

Grandpa), silly snap chats...more pool time, a cookout with the 

great grandparents...and a finished shed!!

While we hated that Rob stayed back and did all the 

hard work of putting together the shed...we both agreed

it looks AMAZING. We ended up moving the location

of the shed to a different part of our yard...and it just

makes our backyard look so much bigger!

Hope your weekend was full of fun!
xoxo

Summer So Far...

Hey Friends!

I didn't mean to not blog for a whole month....but Memorial 

Day came and went...ZooKids summer camp started...the 

weather got excellent...and well...here I am...  So let's play

catch up.  The Haucks love summer time and just 

like every other season of the year...we try to 

cram in all the fun we possibly can.  

This post is going to photo heavy so bear with me :)

(this is the ZooKids crew on the Pirate boat ride)

 Our summer Zoo Kid classes started the week of 

Memorial day...and friends, I have to say, having

two classes a day with 20 preschoolers has left me

totally exhausted.  These kids are wearing me out!

I barely have enough energy for my own child

and when he goes to bed...sadly, all I want to do is 

veg out on my couch and watch the Bachelorette. 

The one thing I did manage to do was take Max

strawberry picking.  This was so much fun! 

He was such a good little helper in the patch.

I let him pick the row and then he would point

out the red ones and pull off the stems for me. 

We made a great team! 

 

 

 

Mims used all of our strawberries to make a delicious

Strawberry dessert on Memorial Day weekend. 

There is something so mouth watering about

fresh strawberries. I'm so sad the growing season

here in Ohio is so short...thankfully raspberry

season is right around the corner. 

 Of course, we've also been making a lot of time

to visit the park in the evening.  Max has been going

to bed later and later it seems...so anything to wear

him out helps. One of our favorites is Emerald

Fields right in Dublin. It's right around the corner

and has so much fun slides!

 We've been doing a fair amount of swimming too....

at Mims and Grandpa's pool...Auntie Stacy's pool....

the Worthington pool, and in our backyard too :)

Each time we go, Max gets braver and braver. 

At first he didn't even want to get in...only put 

his feet in...but this past weekend...he was running

and jumping off the side to us! 

 Think he has enough pool toys?  

We upgraded the backyard pool too....so 

we have a larger purple elephant pool now. 

The problem with the backyard pool is that 

is full of hose water...which is frigid to say the least. 

I try not to say anything about it because I don't want

Max to pick up on my apprehension...but man, 

it's cold. 

 We met our friends, the Dotson's, at the Park of Roses too!

Our boy's are about six months apart in age. 

The boys had a great time running around, playing on the tall

slides, and also playing "firemen". And you know what, 

I actually had a decent conversation with my friend. 

It felt so weird to not be watching Max like a hawk...but

that's a perk of him getting older I guess!  I'll take it!

 We snuck out for Rob's birthday dinner to Sweet Carrot

in Grandview.  It was so, SO good.  I'm still dreaming

of the Coconut Oatmeal cookie I had (well, actually that I 

forced Rob to share with me).  I would recommend this

spot to anyone.  It's pretty casual but delicious!

 And speaking of delicious, we walked (and Max 

rode in the wagon) to Jeni's ice cream too!  We hadn't been 

there in awhile but it did not disappoint.  Max recommends

the Strawberry Buttermilk. He also recommends that you 

DO NOT put your finger on the wagon wheel when your 

mom isn't looking and then runs it over. #parentfail

Rob had to carry him the rest of the way back as he 

refused to sit in the wagon. 

 Our hair dresser Halley gave Max his summer cut

(bye bye sweet curls) and he's rocking it. Afterward, 

we went back to Coffman park and explored the creek

and playground. Max told me next time, we can bring

our boots and go in the water (because we saw a girl

scout troop doing this).

 The Columbus Arts Festival was last weekend so 

we hit that up too!  Max had a blast in the kids area...

he got his face painted (a green snake), colored a mustache, 

made a bell ringer, and played with moon sand. Each activity

earned him a sticker and with five stickers you got a silver coin!

The silver coin could be spent in the kids tent...but Max just 

wanted to keep the coin and not turn it in for a prize. 

I think he thought it was legitimate pirate treasure. 

 The best part of that festival was the Kona ice truck!

Papa Rob helped him concoct a very flavorful shaved ice

treat...I stuck with my Tiger's Blood flavor. 

I wish that truck would roll up to my house every night. 

 That same weekend, we tested out Mema and Pop's pool. 

They are here for the summer and getting settled in their 

new house.  The pool was great...not too warm, but not 

totally arctic temps either.  I only remembered to bring

Max's suit...so Max went in with Pops!

 It took a long time, but Pop's finally convinced

him to come all the way in (also #parentfail we forgot

the stupid puddle jumper thing). Pop's was even 

able to give him a few toss's! Max was loving it. 

 We discovered the joy of a bubble maker. 

This genius invention means I don't have to blow

bubbles for hours anymore. Max is content to 

pour the bubbles in and then run around like a 

crazy person trying to pop them. Seriously, guys, 

this was like $10 and worth every penny. 

We take it everywhere! The park, our backyard, 

friend's houses, Titi's house....fun for everyone!

 Except Penny. Penny was decidedly against the bubble 

machine. haha! 

 This brings us to last weekend. It was a busy one!

We went to a wedding for our friend Courtney on Friday

night.  The wedding was really beautiful...held at a winery

in the Brewery district of Columbus. The ceremony was

in the alley between the winery and the building next store. 

This probably seems weird - but it was actually really

cool - cobblestone street, reclaimed wood backdrop,

and patio lights strung between. Perfection. 

Also, I got to drink sangria during the ceremony...

so it was real nice.  

 I still managed to make it to the gym on Saturday morning. 

Please note, I'm typing this casually, which probably makes 

it seem like I go to the gym a lot. That's false. I go on 

Saturday's and only sometimes. I go to hang out with 

my sister and her work out group. And then I'm sore for 

like a whole week afterward. But, the upside this week

was we got to stop at Red Twig Farms and pick a bunch

of peonies. Peonies are practically our favorite flower. 

Sunflowers being a close second for me. 

 Saturday evening, we went to Zoofari! 

Zoofari is held at the Zoo every summer. They invite

local restaurants to set up and serve food...there is also 

tons of alcohol (think beer trucks...bars...and hard liquor)...

and then musicians are located throughout the Zoo. 

This is always such a fun event (even if Rob 

is hustling me along so he gets to try all the food

before it runs out). We took Mema and Pops this 

year...and they enjoyed it too!  We strolled around and

filled our bellies...and then parked it in front of Eric Von. 

He put on such a fun show. He's a country singer (but also does 

tons of covers). I sang the night away!

 On Sunday, we drove to Dayton to pick up Max. 

My parents watched him (bless them over and over) 

on Friday and Saturday night.  Mama got to sleep in

and generally pick up my house, put away laundry, 

clean the bathrooms...you get the idea. It was a productive

weekend. But, we were oh so happy to see him!

We tried out the Deer Run pool again...and the heater

had finally kicked on!  Hooray! We all enjoyed two

hours at the pool (and Max enjoyed no nap)...before

having our favorite Marion's Pizza for dinner. 

I got to hug my Dad and celebrate Father's Day

with my favorite guys (minus grandpa Jim - we 

missed him!!). 

This week we are back at work.  But, the weather has 

been wicked hot. So, most nights you will find Max running

through the sprinkler or doing some kind of water play (sometimes

with clothes and other times butt naked). 

Thanks to those who checked on me and let me know 

they were anxious for a new post!  I love you all for 

reading! :)  I promise we are all good - just busy! 

xoxo