More Summer Goodness

Last week was my birthday. Since the kids were mum about whether or not Ray was bringing home a cake for me (he did!) I thought I would make my own birthday cake. I've been wanting to make a chocolate cake from scratch for a while now. This seemed like the perfect time. I used this recipe. It was awesome! And very easy. I don't think I will ever buy another box cake. I made some cream cheese frosting, then the girls decorated it for me with colored sugar sprinkles. On one side only because some people don't like sprinkles.

The day after my birthday we went blackberry picking. The weather was perfect. A little overcast and cool. I could have picked for hours more than we did.

The kids ran out of steam a little earlier than I had hoped. Will still picked enough berries for about 3 batches of jam, a couple gallons of frozen berries, and enough left over to eat fresh for a few days. The one thing we wanted to make that we didn't was a pie or tart. We just ran out of berries. I guess I could use up some of the one I froze. But I kind of wanted to save those until this winter when we might need a nice reminder of summer.

The next day was all about soccer. Soccer season is here and the kids had a blast at their first games. Unfortunately, my little point-and-shoot camera is woefully inadequate when it comes to getting action shots half-way across a soccer field. This is the only decent one from the whole day: