The Blueberry Problem

At the beginning of July, we decided to head out and pick some blueberries with our boys. They were fairly good especially since this was the first time we picked our own produce at a farm. The boys had a blast hiding from us in the bushes and then yelling "boo!" whenever we said, "Where are the boys?"

We ended up picking almost two buckets worth of blueberries by the time the boys started talking about going home. Since I didn't have a specific amount of blueberries that I wanted, we decided to head back home to prep the blueberries for freezing.

On the way home, Beniah asked how much a blueberry weighed. So, once we were home, out came the kitchen scale, four ramekins, and Beniah's notebook. Tim had Beniah count out 30 blueberries per ramekin.

They then measured each group and wrote down the weights.

Then came the adding up of the weights of the four group of blueberries.

Beniah worked out the math problem in his head. I noticed that he figured out the math if he marched around the front room. (Mental note to self: Remember this when homeschooling starts in September!)

Elijah did not enjoy the math portion of the experiment, but he did like figuring out how the scale worked.

In the end, we figured out that one blueberry was approximately 1.8 grams.

And now you know a random fact about blueberries.

Company Picnic

The company that Tim works for doesn't have a Christmas party for their employees, so they opt for a large family friendly picnic in July. Beniah and Elijah had been anticipating the picnic for days.

Finally, it was time to leave and battle the Portland traffic as we drove to Oaks Park.  The boys were so excited and annoyed that I took a picture of them in the suburban.

"Mama, let's go!"

Once we got to the park and met up with Tim, we were given ride bracelets and set off to have some fun before the barbecuing commenced.Of course, the boys wanted to ride the train right away.

There were rides that looked really cool, but required a bit more height to ride on.

There were other ones that required more height or an adult. Those are the fun ones!

Well, maybe more scary than fun.

Next came the carousal ride that was much tamer!

Once we got back to the picnic area, one of Tim's coworkers made Beniah a really cool sword while another coworker made Elijah a really lame dog.

There were tears until another sword was made (actually two swords because the first sword wasn't like his brother's sword).

It was all fun and games until the red sword popped. Fortunately, the coworkers made another sword for Elijah. For those of you keeping count, that is the fourth balloon animal/toy that was made for Elijah.

Post dinner rides included another train ride.

And Motorcycle rides. Four times in a row.
The first round, Beniah got off the bike before the ride started (leaving Elijah by himself in the sidecar) because he was nervous about it being like the spinning Tilt ride.

Then he realized it was AWESOME and wanted to ride the motorcycle.

Again...

And Again...
  However, I didn't get a photo of the last ride because Tim and I were trying to figure out why there was a flying cellphone that almost hit Tim in the head. I totally didn't laugh about it.... At all...

The boys ended their night on the rocking tug (another scary ride for poor Elijah).

All the way back to the suburban, the boys were begging to know when we are going back to the amusement park.

The Beach Trip Adventure!

This past Saturday, we packed up our suburban and went on a grand Whittaker family adventure to the coast. 

After hearing great reviews about Hug Point in Oregon, we decided to try it out.  We arrived there during low tide and got to explore the tide pools!

The boys were super excited about that.

They weren't all that thrilled about crossing a small stream though.

We explored the beach a bit more. The point has a wagon trail around it. Science and History in one trip!

The view from the wagon trail.

Soon, it was time to settle down and play in the sand.

Isaac loved the kite flying.

He clapped every time he saw the kite overhead.

Of course, sand angels had to be made.

Elijah tried his hand at flying the kite and did pretty good at it.

Isaac ate the sand and was rather upset with me when I washed the sand off of his hands and face.

Beniah collected rocks.

Elijah collected water for his sand volcano.

Isaac finally had enough of the beach and fell asleep against me.

Time to head to the water to put our feet in!

Elijah wanted no part in the water (it was too scary!), but Beniah enjoyed it.

After one last visit to the waterfall, it was time to head back to the Suburban and get some lunch.

Whittaker Five at the beach (Isaac is hiding behind Tim's head)!

After lunch, Tim and I decided to take our exausted family home. We anticipated a quiet ride home with napping boys. We were wrong! At least the noise was due to giggles and not screams.