Cherries!

Today, let's start out with a game. It's called: Find My Kids.

The rules are simple. Find the kids in the picture. Ready? Go!

(Taken in the middle of the night, in the playroom, where the kids slept in their makeshift "sleepover beds." Colorful, aren't they?) (Ok, the photobomb from the little Asian girl on the diaper box against the wall is kind of freaking me out. Go to sleep! It's the middle of the night!) 

I'm still trying to get into the swing of the Summer Schedule. Without school drop off and pick ups, we need to find other things to define the parts of the day. Today, I knew I had a lot of errands to run, and that it would take a fair amount of driving. I needed to visit a friend from church, drop some groceries off to another friend who was in charge of dinner for a homeless shelter, get groceries, and pick up 36 pounds of cherries from a home in a part of town I'd never been to. Mapping all that out, I realized it would take a good 90 minutes of driving. Because the appointment to visit my friend was the only one that had a time attached, I used that as my end point and counted backwards. The appointment was at noon, so I would need to leave the house at 10:30. Easy peasy. At 10, I started to feed the baby. She nodded off, and I let her catnap while she ate. 

At 10:15, the phone rang. "Umm...hi. Just curious - are you still coming over today? We're all waiting for you." 

So...yeah. That noon appointment was at 10 am. Oops! I threw the kids in the car, and rushed out the door...only to get stuck at the end of the street, waiting for the signal man to let me through. (They are repaving a long chunk of road, and getting through it takes quite a while!) 

I finally made it to my friend's house...and then the Rest of the Day began. We started by dropping off our contribution to the shelter dinner, and then driving out to pick up our cherries. Unfortunately, when we got there, the woman apologized and said the cherries hadn't arrived yet! Her cousin picked them yesterday, and was trucking them over the pass this morning...but he forgot to check conditions, and was stuck in traffic while the DOT did some blasting on the mountainside. 

Hmm. Right then.

 Lunch first! 

Always the same thing. 2 waters, 2 yogurt parfaits, 2 cheeseburgers, with extra pickles. I find it's easier to take kids out to eat if they don't have too many options, don't you? 

My sister offered to pick up my groceries for me this afternoon, so all that was left was to go back to get our cherries...and BOY were they worth the wait. I've never had tastier cherries. The Rainiers are small and super sweet. The Bings are big and juicy. SJ was super excited - he's my fruit fiend. "Mom? I'm going to have one cherry...every DAY!" I informed him that these aren't something you can really parse out like that. So he was free to eat as MANY as he liked. Every day. 

If I handed a robber the key to the bank vault, you wouldn't see a happier face. (Yeah, that analogy isn't working for me, either, but I'm still watching Full Metal Alchemist at night, and it's the best I can come up with. There have been a string of robbers in the past few episodes.) Whatever. The dude was happy. 

(Rainier cherries. If memory serves, this strain of cherry was born at one of our state universities. Hence, the very Washington name.) (For my out of town friends, there's a huge mountain here - Mt. Rainier.)

(Bing cherries, getting a bath)

While I washed the cherries and set them out to dry, the big kids played with Baby Ying Ying. Apparently, they decided to play dress up. 

(Doesn't she look adorable wearing my dish rag and her sister's headband?)

Again, the deer in the headlights look! I really must remember to turn OFF my flash...

Anyhow. I split the cherries with my sister, and now have 18 pounds here to eat, freeze, bake a pie...whatever! Yum. I love summer fruit!