Picking and Painting

We went strawberry picking for the first time on the first day of June! Emma was really excited about it. It was a cooler day with a strong wind. The season had just opened but I knew that if we didn't take advantage of the "free" Friday we would not have gone at all. So we met our friends Betsy and her son Truman at a place on the north-east side of Madison along I-94. There were a handful of people picking when we got there, but soon we had the field to ourselves. Emma and Truman ran up and down the rows, Emma carefully stepping over the plants to get from row to row in the middle of the field. Truman's legs were not quite long enough to avoid stepping on the plants.  Emma didn't eat any strawberries until she was that Truman's face was turning red with juice. Even still, she managed to pick 2.1 pounds of berries!  I picked 2.5 pounds to compare.  It was a great day!  Emma and Truman liked the animals they had under the temporary trailer; goats, a sheep, and a potbellied pig. The kids fed the animals some grain and laughed like crazy.  At home we washed all the berries and had strawberry shortcake for dessert. Then we had strawberries on our breakfasts and just for snacking and in a delicious smoothie! Yummy!

For Father's day Emma and I undertook a project described on the blog The Artful Parent. We bought some rubber cement and made our own watercolor paints. First Emma drizzled and brushed rubber cement on several sheets of watercolor paper. When they were dry we started making the paints. Here Emma is mixing up the dry ingredients for the paints. She loves cooking and measuring!

She experimented making different colors with the food coloring colors, and ended up with 10 different colors. Outside she painted 6 pictures, one without rubber cement, for Papa, Grandpa, Daddy, Mommy and herself, plus an extra. Even for Father's day she is thinking outside the male box. :)  She loved painting with the water colors, that stayed liquid throghout the session.  We left the paints on the counter and after 5 days they are finally all completely dry- like the watercolor paints in the store.  Sometime soon we will do some more painting and compare how the paints are dry versus wet. Daddy loved his painting, by the way and temporarily stuck it to the wall above the bed. He asked for a frame even.  Emma noticed it hanging there and was quite pleased with herself.