making jam and reading books

one summer day down and already two things on our list done!

yesterday we took a trip to the library and signed up for their summer reading program!  i think that the reading program is one of my favorite things to do in the summer with my kids, it was certainly one of my favorite summer activities when i was little!

we've already logged 45 minutes!

after we signed up we grabbed 6 books as fast as we could and checked them out because we were on our way to grandmama's house...

...to make strawberry jam!

my mom has made great the best strawberry freezer jam every summer for as long as i can remember.  this stuff is seriously delicious!  i absolutely refuse to eat a pb&j with anything but this jam.  my kids have only eaten store bought jam a few times, in emergencies (ie, when we lived in idaho and ran out in the middle of winter), this is their jam of choice.  in fact, abbey ate an entire jar of this stuff with a spoon for breakfast the other day.  it's that good.  note: i do not feed my children jars of jam for breakfast, she "fixed her own breakfast" while i was still asleep.


since it's strawberry season here in the northwest, we bought a bunch of flats from a farmer (sooo much yummier than store bought strawberries, seriously. stop buying your berries at wal-mart!  those things are gross.) and went to work.  the girls are old enough now that they got to help, too!  what an awesome memory to have.

washing the berries

ellie & grandmama smooshing the berries

abbey & grandmama smooshing more berries

henry sat very patiently in his highchair, munching on rice cakes, while all this smooshing was  going on.

measuring the strawberries & adding (a lot) of sugar!

making silly faces and stirring in the pectin.

henry took care of the extra smooshed strawberries that we had.

jam.

 we all had so much fun listening to oldies and dancing in the kitchen while we made strawberry jam with grandmama.  i can't wait to spread this all over a piece of toast!