Blueberry picking with cousins

Growing up in rural Japan, I had not heard of such thing as blueberries. Then one day, I saw some "made with blueberry" stuff at a supermarket in a rather big city when I was in high school. They grew only in Hokkaido, the northern island in Japan, and were very much exotic fruit to me.

Then, I moved to Michigan over a decade ago. Here we are living in berry heaven. Blueberry picking became one of our summer ritual. Pick them, eat them, freeze them, and even dream about them.

This year, we went with my sisters-in-law and their kids to a berry patch that was new to me. Kids in boots and with little buckets, off we went. Weather was perfect. I came home with 23 lb. of blueberries. The amount in kids' tummies will be a forever mystery. They really should weigh kids before and after. M, as a picky eater as she can be, did not eat them at all, but she did pick. She enjoyed picking so much that she by herself picked a half pound in very short period time (as she finally decided to start picking when I was ready to leave).

J's wish list with these blueberries - smoothie, jam, pie, blueberry muffins, etc.
We did make smoothie after we came home. The rest, well, I need to get some rest first, then I'll think about it.

Sleepover

I'm a scout-camp widow again. My husband is up in camping with boy scouts for a few nights. Because of that and my kidney stone situation, my sister-in-law felt sorry for me and offered me to take a couple of kids from me. Well, J was the only one took the proposal. M wanted to be with Mommy. And there was almost no hope for K to go.

So, off he went to cousins' last night. It was his first real sleepover all by himself, no Mom and Dad or even his siblings. Just J. He was excited about this special occasion, according to my sister-in-law, which is good and made me feel better.

Now the top bunk being empty, M didn't want to sleep in her bed last night. Oh, great. I sighed.
Then, I came up with an idea!

Why not having our version of sleepover!? Just us girls. (Sorry, K, you need to sleep in your crib.)

I made a bed for M next my bed (to maintain quality of my sleep, I proposed her to have "a special bed just for M"). We stayed up and read books and talked. She told me that now her pink bunny has a name and that is Joey, but this little bear here doesn't have a name yet and she would tell me in the morning. And she did. The little bear's name is Boo-Boo.

After she fell sleep tonight, I quietly snuck out of the room for a little bed-time snack. Now my tummy is happy, I think I can sleep good tonight.