4th of July Weekend

This last weekend I had so much work to do and no way to complete it all. I was so thankful then, when Knut came home on Thursday afternoon and said he was done for the week, and asked how he could help. So with a big sigh of relief, I made him up a to-do list of things, and he got to work. He got my vegetable garden and the front flower bed all weeded. Both needed it badly! Then as seen before, he took the kids strawberry picking. It was the last day to do it before the strawberry farm was done for the year, and I had no time but I this is a jam year for me, and I really wanted to make some strawberry jam!

So on Saturday, all of my helpers and me got all of the strawberry and strawberry-rhubarb jam made for the year! It’s normally a job that takes me all day, but we were done by lunchtime. It’s so nice to have help!

So that left me plenty of time to make my pies for Sunday. The infamous pie table at the 4th of July party is what I think many members of our family look forward to the most. This year I made a baked triple-berry pie and a baked strawberry-rhubarb pie. I did the fancy lattice tops on both of them because I wanted more practice making those look pretty, as the last time I tried a lattice top it looked pretty bad!


This year the triple-berry was one of the first to go, which made me beam with pride. The strawberry rhubarb made it to leftovers for the evening meal, which was disappointing to me, since I like my pies gone first 😉 but I didn’t have any leftovers to take home, which I know wasn’t happy for Knut. However, on this particular holiday, I take leftover pie home as an insult, and have only had to take home leftover pie once before and do not intend on repeating it! It’s a very silly goal of mine every year, but I suppose every life is entitled some silliness!

Silje had a blast hanging out with “the big girls” on the dock.

For snack, watermelon was passed around…where every you happened to be.

As always, the 4th produces quite a crowd! I overheard there were 103 that signed the guest book, but they were pretty sure there were some that had not.

It was rainy and dreary in the morning, but much to all of our pleasure, the sun came out and there was a slight breeze and it turned into a most perfect day at the lake! It’s a tradition that Knut’s grandparents have had since 1944 (although it might have been started by his great-grandparents, come to think of it), and apparently, they have never once canceled. The family has grown a bunch since then, and continues to grow. There were several “honorary family members” there too. Still we pack it in, and have a great time every year!