A Saturday Adventure: Strawberry Picking at Wood Duck Farm

Last Saturday was the perfect day for a family adventure. It was sunny and mild and we had no plans until evening, so we headed up north to Cleveland to visit Wood Duck Farm for some strawberry picking. We have been purchasing produce from Van at Wood Duck Farm through his CSA and the farmers market for years and years, but strawberry picking at his farm is my favorite.

Ready to pick some berries!

The strawberries are ripe and juicy and oh-so-sweet. 

 

 

 

We picked 15 pounds in under 15 minutes!

After the tractor ride back from the field, we paid for the strawberries and the boys played and played at the farm's playground.

We ended our morning with a picnic lunch and a lost tooth! Henry was a eating a baguette sandwich when out popped one of his bottom teeth.

Now we are eating fresh strawberries with every meal, sharing them with family, freezing them for smoothies and getting ready to make some jam. Strawberry season is delicious!

Celebrating the March Birthdays

March is a big birthday month in our family. We got together with my folks on Friday evening (my dad's actual birthday) to celebrate three of the March birthdays: Gramma, Henry and Grampa. The only one missing was Aunt Amber!

There was a stack of presents for Henry -- lots of new building toys, a couple games, and books! This Ogo Bild Nexus building toy was the hit of the evening. 

The boys built and built and built some more!

My parents cooked up a storm and set a lovely table for us.

On the menu: polenta lasagna, roasted and raw veggies, and crusty bread with pesto. Mmmm!

Dessert was a family favorite: chocolate cherry brownies. They are so delicious!  

The birthday trio

After dinner, we finished up the gifts.  

My dad enjoys brain teasers so we got him IQ Twist, which is a favorite at our house.

What a fun birthday celebration!

8

Henry turned 8 years old on Monday. It was the first day back to school after spring break, but we celebrated with homemade birthday bagels for breakfast and I sent him off to school with a tin of chocolate chip cookies to share with his class. And then after school, we stopped by Crave Cupcakes to pick out all the cupcakes and had a family dinner out. I love birthdays and we try to make them special for the boys!

Birthday bagels -- a new tradition!

We had dinner out at Vietopia. Henry really wanted to try the roasted duck, so he and Gene split the entree. Henry kept calling it rabbit, though! Check out his grin. He was SO happy!

 Back home, we had a birthday cake cupcake from Crave.

 

Happy happy birthday, Henry!

Here are some things I want to remember about Henry at age 8:

• He is incredibly creative and is constantly coming up with imaginary worlds, languages, and games to play with his brother. Some are really goofy!
• Henry loves to play with words and tell jokes.
• He loves food and is always willing to try new things.
• We call Henry Tigger because lately he bounces, bounces, bounces! His energy is limitless. And he still doesn't like to go to bed when it's bedtime (some things never change).
• Henry loves to read and right now he really enjoys graphic novels (the Amulet and Salem Hyde series are favorites). He is also working his way through the Warrior series as well as some Minecraft books.
• Henry loves to be outside, hiking, camping, biking, playing soccer or wiffle ball or just exploring.  
• Henry is my farmers market sidekick and all the farmers know him!
• He has the best big belly laugh and gives amazingly strong (Chewbacca) hugs. 
• Henry is incredibly sweet and helpful.
• Even though he's really smart, school is not his favorite place. He loves learning through books and experiences and can't wait for summer break.
• Henry has really good, sweet friends at school and in Scouts, but his best friend is Will. Those boys are two peas in a pod.  
• Henry is always up for an adventure.

Happy birthday to my amazingly smart, sweet and funny 8 year old!

Henry's Spy Party

Last Saturday, we celebrated Henry's 8th birthday with a super sneaky spy party. If it sounds familiar, it is -- Will's 8th birthday party was also a spy-themed one.

We invited Henry's closest friends and had a really good time celebrating our almost-eight-year old!

The spy trainees starting arriving right at 3pm.

The first stop was the Secret Agent Training Center, where the new spies were fingerprinted and given code names.

Henry, Secret Agent 001, is Aggressive Griffin and Will, Secret Agent 002, is Growling Troll.

And this is the agent in charge of training, Agent Double Oh Zero. The name is Bond. Joe Bond.  

He gathered his new trainees and instructed them that once they completed spy training, they would receive their super secret spy gear, located on the mantle above the happy birthday banner.

First up, the obstacle course:   

The trainees had to run and touch all the cones, crawl under the benches without setting off the bomb, and then distract the "protection" and grab the cup from my amazing friend Heather, who graciously offered to come and help out with the party. They all did really well!

 

The trainees came back inside for step 2 of training, which was a memory boosting activity. They had 45 seconds to look at the 15 objects on this tray and then write them down from memory. It's harder than it looks!

The last step was target practice. The trainees had to use Nerf guns to hit towers of Dixie cups.

This boy has so much energy!

The trainees all completed the three phases of training with flying colors and ran back inside to get their super secret gear, only to discover that it was gone -- and a blank piece of paper was left in its place. Will and Henry quickly figured out that the code was written in invisible ink...

and it was a mirror image!

In all, these super sleuths cracked seven codes, everything from pigpen ciphers and Morse code to polybius and reverse alphabet ciphers. 

The clues led them through a laser field and they had to detonate black bombs (balloons) and diffuse a massive stick of dynamite.   

They solved the puzzles and found their spy glasses (pictured on Henry below) in the boys' bathtub.  

We celebrated their hard work with snacks

and cake (German chocolate cake with chocolate ganache).

Happy birthday, Henry!

 

What a fun birthday celebration for our spy-loving boy!