Nathalieland Update - School/Birthday/Strawberries/Summer

Final School Events. June was such a busy month with school activities. For Jessi, this included a frisbee tournament (champions!), a public reading of her short story, and a 3-day field trip to Québec City (not to mention grade 8 graduation). For Emily, it was finishing big projects in drama and careers, and studying for her final exams in math and history. Fortunately all events went well!

Belated Birthday Party. Jessi enjoyed her belated birthday party last weekend with a pizza dinner, chocolate fondue dessert, sleepover, pancake breakfast, and a mall trip. Our basement seems well suited for multiple sleepers and lots of fun!

Strawberry Pickin'. While Emily was busy studying for her exams, Jessi and I joined my parents and sister's family for some local strawberry picking. The berries were huge and yummy this year! The crowds were also big since we were all avoiding the upcoming major heat wave.

The woes of biting into strawberries with braces...

Hello Summer and Accounting. Summer break started on Friday -- yay! We celebrated with swims in our neighbour's pool. Emily's break is about to end though, since she's taking a summer course in grade 11 accounting. She wasn't able to fit the course into her schedule for next year, so this was the next best option. It'll keep her busy for the month of July and then she'll get to rest in August.

♥ My shopping buddy

COVID-19 - Week 15 (Haircut, Strawberries, and More!)

We had a very full and fun week! It started off with our third (snake) catch of the season: meet Nagini, another small Northern Water Snake.

Weighing in at 91 grams

It took us a while to catch our third snake, so in the meantime we caught two tadpoles (named Kllr and Pllr). They were originally going to be snake food, but Emily and Jessi have grown quite fond of them! So instead we will take care of them and hope to see them turn into frogs.

The next main event of the week is that I finally got to see my hairdresser for an overdue cut. Feels and looks great!

Before and After:

Then on Thursday we met up with my parents at Fruition Berry Farm for some strawberry picking. The only virus-related restrictions were a hand-washing station at the start, no playground for the girls, and no tractor ride either. All fine!

It had actually been a long time since our last strawberry picking adventure (in 2016). I was surprised at how much more patient and hardworking the girls were in the fields! Older and wiser, I guess!

We froze some of our berries and made jam, but my favourite (and Jessi's too!) was having them with melted chocolate for dessert.

Last but not least, the girls had their last day of school on Friday! Here is the traditional last-day picture in front of the garage, but sans backpacks since it was all at home.

All done grade 5 and grade 3

Speaking of traditions, Jessi and I were very happy that the Costco food court has reopened so that we could celebrate the last day of school with our favourite ice cream treat. Hello summer break!