Pick your Own...

Trees are the earth's endless effort to speak to the listening heaven -- Tagore

Seeing Chandrika’s post made me do this. Yes, finally. I had a yearning to take little S to the orchards where she can get to “pick her own” fruits. Not that that would make her eat all her fruits with a glee but just because she would know that fruits grew on trees and not in Shop Rite. With my tomato and beans and okra (last year) plants she has got the hang of where they come from but she was yet to see a fruit laden tree from where you could pluck them. So since I couldn’t grow a fruit tree in my backyard I thought the best would be to take her to the orchards

Last week was pretty hectic with some unexpected but very welcome guests popping in and staying with us for the better part of the week. The guest was my friend with her 4 year old en route to India who had to stop and spend time at my place due to some messed up travel plan. Since it was summer but the heat was not overbearing we took the kids to an orchard near my home. The strawberry season was over and the peaches were just ripening to be picked, so peaches it was.

The rows and rows of peach trees were laden with fruits, there was fruit hanging from all possible branches and the kids had a fun time plucking them and plonking them in the basket. They ran through the trees, hung on the delicate branches (you are not really allowed to do that) and had a general good time.

Little hands picking the fruit

I would suggest a trip to these orchards a very good way to entertain your kids during summer. Its relaxing, exhilarating and reminds you of the days when you would climb up the guava tree and get a bunch of green guavas in the nook of your long A line frock.

Luscious Peaches

Some links to Pick your Own farms
Pick your Farm from here -- State by State listing
Pick your Farm in NJ -- NJ listings

(this post shared in part at Bong Mom's Cook Book)

S is for....

This post is by Kodi's Mom of Kodimeow Kronicles.

S is for..

..sprinklers, dancing, twirling ones.
...sunny evenings, that last forever.
....sleeveless shirts.
.....shortest shorts.
......shadows - long and tall ones.
.......shade, from young trees.

S is for SUMMER!

Midsummer DayDream

This post is by Poppins of BabiesAnon


Bangalore has only three seasons, cool, warm, unpredictable! Summer this year was very hot but lasted only all of two months. It's raining now and some days are so darn depressing. Especially with an active toddler at home. Ever since I saw this theme for July, I started thinking about significant summers. Should I write about the hot sleepy summers I spent in a vilage in Kerala as a kid? Or about the out-all-day-and-night summers during my Engineering study holidays? Nah.

I don't have any special memories of a summer with poppin yet. So I thought why not create some?

I took a day off this week because my MIL had some pressing work. It's been a while since I took the day off when neither poppin nor me were sick. Plus I didn't have any chores to finish. In order to take full advantage of my unexpected time with poppin, I decided to do some special things with her. This would also be a step towards making some fun memories and record them someplace.

We're members of a neighborhood club that also has a park attached to it. So I decided that we would do a picnic in the wooded area of the park,(Tharini style) and then perhaps swimming and lunch at the club.

Nothing special to that really. I've done all of the above, not necessarily at the same time. What was going to make it special was my attitude towards it. This was a special day I was spending with poppin, I would dress up, dress her up, we would walk down to the park without a care in the world and just focus on having fun.

Unfortunately, the maid played truant that day and while waiting for her, poppin got hungry. So I had to feed her lunch at home. All hope was not lost though. So what if we could not do a picnic? We would still do the park, the usual rides that we do. Except that this time, I would take my camera along so that I have some pictures to put on this blog ! Talk about composing posts in my mind !

So I put her into a white summery dress, packed snacks, water, swim clothes for me and her, and a change of clothes incase of an accident. We walked down to the park at 11 AM in the morning. On a week day. Ah the bliss ! She was excited as always to be outside the house. Fortunately the Bangalore weather too cooperated by being on its best behavior. It was warm but not hot, and there were clear blue skies. Perfect weather for pictures.

We did a lot of rides, the swings, the slides and the trees. We giggled and played catch and generally had a wonderful time.

Poppin was already in her best mood and having a great day. I decided to up the happiness quotient by suggesting swimming ! She was so darn excited, this girl takes to water like a cliched fish. We've been taking her swimming ever since she was eight months old. So we changed in the locker room and jumped into the toddler pool where poppin splashed and drank (ugh) the chlorinated water to her heart's content.

When I decided that she had enough, I dragged her out of the pool while she longingly looked at it. We then headed to the restaurant/lounge in the club. Here's where the child started to show her true colours. She ran all around the restaurant and entered the lounge/bar area too. And yelled at the top of her voice every time I pulled her back to the seat.

Fortunately, the restaurant was not too crowded and the waiters were indulgent. One of them even did a tinkling of the beer mug with a spoona-la 'Ruk Jaa Oh Dil Deewane' from DDLJ. After she had charmed the pants off most of the people there, and had a bit of curd rice, we walked back home for a well deserved afternoon nap.

I should do this more often. Thank you DMC for an excuse for photo-op !

A version of this post with more photos is up at my blog

Theme for July

Its summer and its hot, fun, and loaded with outdoor stuff. So why not we have July dedicated to Summer. Share a summer story, plenty of summer pics, taken by you or the kid, summer snacks and treats for the kids, a summer vacation story, anything and everything that summer means to you and your kids.

Theme for July -- Summer Fun with Kids
The same rules apply. Every week Thursday to Saturday,feel free to post on the Theme of the Month.Non members can send articles to the e mail provided on the sidebar

Also I have a request for all DMC members. If each of you take up a month, decide on the theme and conduct the theme of the month the way you choose, we will get a more broader spectrum of ideas here. Indosungod already has a Theme for August. So please send me a mail at desimomz.blog@gmail.com to take up a month you prefer.

Also please send your ideas, feedbacks about what you want to have at DMC. Its everyone’s blog and if any of you have the desire, idea for monthly columns or some such thing please come up with it.

Tharini has made a lovely icon for the Club. Please feel free to download and use it. Give her the credits when you use the logo



Icon Credits: Tharini of Winkies Way