The tastes of summer

We celebrate many tastes throughout the summer, but one of the best and earliest is arrival, in early June, of the Michigan strawberries.  Sure, the California berries that are imported year round (albeit at a price) are pretty decent themselves, but put an imported berry next to a Michigan berry and there really is no contest - the deceptively small Michigan berry can look pretty scraggly next to its beefcake California counterpart, but inside its much deeper red color is an equal depth of flavor that beats the California berry hands down.  They aren't available for long, so we have to take advantage of them when we can and last night we did just that, enjoying our first summer taste alongside homemade shortcake and topped with homemade whipped cream.  Yum.

Slip sliding away

Yes, the good old Slip n' Slide, that great water toy of the 80s, is still alive and well.  It's been "improved upon," mind you - no more banana shaped sprinkler, your hose now attaches directly to the slide itself, and forget the grass stained swimshorts, you now end your slide in an inflated reservoir with a great big splash - but all in all it's still a great toy that packs a lot of fun in its punch, or whatever the saying is.  Of course, Calvin's problem is that he isn't quite weighty enough to make it all the way down the slide, even with a great big push from a parent, and he isn't quite coordinated enough to run and slide for himself, so we end up getting awfully wet in the process, but really it was worth it.  We wonder if they really mean it when they say not for use by children over the age of twelve.
More pictures here. 

Rain, rain, don't go away.

It's tough being a kid.  We've had such beautiful weather lately that Calvin has become accustomed to going outside to play after naptime every day.  In fact, forget accustomed, he's down right expectant.  When he went down for his nap this afternoon all he could talk about was "painting the driveway" when he got up (with water, of course).  How dare the weather have different plans!  So when he got up, and it was raining pretty steadily, we tried to talk him out of his usual outdoor tromp before dinner, and decided that he might as well see for himself why it wasn't such a good idea.  That went about as well as giving him the hot pepper he asked for the other night and expecting him to give it back (the crazy kid ate it and asked for more).  His initial reaction to the rain was some mix between disbelief and disappointment - painting the driveway in water was certainly not a worthwhile activity anymore - but if we expected him to come inside we were in for another hot pepper style disappointment of our own.  After a moment of despondency, and several minutes of refusing to give in to fate, Calvin discovered splashing (or splatting, as it may be, since improved drainage has cut down severely on puddle enjoyment), and this new activity kept him in giggles until the rain stopped 30 minutes later, at which time he promptly begged to come inside again - now without the rain all the fun was over.  Nature just can't win.

Three cheers for summer weather

We went out for one jog, two walks, and one bike ride today, worked in the garden, met two sets of new neighbors, played in the neighborhood park, grilled and ate on the deck, and went out to say goodnight to the spring peepers before story time.  We love it.

Pictures, pictures as always:  April Album.

The daredevil