Happy (belated) Father's Day!

This year, Ed and I decided to join a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). For a fee, we receive a random box of produce weekly. And, as a bonus, we get to visit "our farm" whenever we want and pick stuff. I can't even believe I am now part of the world that thinks this could possibly be a fun activity. After all, I am the child of a woman who, together with her sister, picked 50 pounds of strawberries a few weeks ago, in a couple of hours! FIFTY! I have memories of strawberry picking day in our house. Mom would drag us out to a farm and we would hunker down and pick strawberries while my dad got to hang out in some air conditioned office for the day. It was one of the few days when we actually got bonus allowance - yeehaw! Of course, I consumed more than my fair share of mom's homemade strawberry jam, and other treats, so don't feel too bad for me.

Anyway, I digress. We decided to make our first visit to our farm on Father's Day. They were having a fishing contest and our u-pick allotment of strawberries was quite generous. The plan was to pick some berries, check out the farm, and have some good old fashioned father son fishing. Only problem was, Connor loves to play with his fishing pole, and even Ed and I are not so stupid as to have the hook and line attached to it normally. So, we got out to the farm and didn't have a hook. No matter. After picking 9 pints of strawbeeres, we fed dried corn to some animals, climbed a hill full of tires, slid down slides, and Connor pedaled around in a tractor. Ed tried to ride with him (they were plenty big), but Connor told Ed that he would prefer to do it by himself because Ed was too big. He also told me that someday, he hoped he could go picking strawberries with grandma all by himself without me. You betcha, buddy.

But the best part of the farm? They have a huge ol' "kernel game". This is only cool because when Connor was less than a year old, and he enjoyed just sitting around, I filled up a little tub with popcorn kernels for him to play in (it was too cold to go outside). It was a great game - until Connor realized he could throw the kernels all over the basement. Oops. When I told my friends about my invented game, not a one thought it was a good idea. They uniformly looked at me and said "you did what? what were you thinking?". I'm telling you though...it was fun!

And Helen's way of celebrating Father's Day? She said "mama" for the first time. Not as in, an actual word identifying me, just the syllables that Connor and I have been trying to get her to say for quite some time.

Elaine