Strawberry Fields and Memorial Day

We've had a very busy weekend, but full of fun!  On Saturday we went with some friends to Sparacio Farms in Brighton, NJ to do some strawberry picking.  We love doing this kind of activities together as a family.

 Working in the fields.

 Showing off her bounty.

 Adorable and hard working!  A definite keeper!

 I think she likes picking strawberries, can you tell?

 Really cool hay maze for the kids to play after all that hard work picking.

 Our plethora of strawberries, it was a good day.

 And what do you do with that many strawberries?  You make delicious, beautiful jars of strawberry jam!  I have to say I'm really liking this canning business.  I get better and better each time, and this was by far the simplest batch I've made yet, and pretty!

For Memorial Day my two Girl Scouts got to walk in the Absecon Memorial Parade.  Emma was happy I don't know what happened here, she just refused to smile.  But I promise she was excited before it started.  It was a very short parade, but we had to walk quite the ways.  I should have turned on my Runtastic and logged it as a workout!  The girls were troopers (pun intended), with only a minimal amount of complaining.

I got to walk with the girls while Daddy stood on the sidelines and took pictures.  It was a very pleasant day, a great day for a parade.  Then we went to a BBQ with some ward friends from church.  We ate, the kids played and the adults played a round of Scrabble.  It was a very fun afternoon, but I couldn't help but feeling considering the occasion that the whole day should be a day of silence in remembrance of those who have fallen protecting my freedom.  Memorial Day isn't just about men and women who have served, it's about those who made the ultimate sacrifice by laying down their lives for this country.  I know I'm just one mother of 5 kids, but the gratitude that I feel for those men and women throughout history cannot be put into words, and I hope that I am teaching my children as well.