Quintessential Indian Summer Pt-1

Sharing a few glimpses from my recent Indian trip...

Bike ride to a destination...

Last weekend, we took a family bike ride for lunch. Bike rides have become an integral part of summers ever since our, then, five year old transitioned out of training wheels. And now our daughters love biking around the block when we work in the yard or go on extended bike rides with us exploring new trails through known neighborhoods.

If you are a parent, you might know how tough it is to teach kids about healthy habits and the special challenge is for them to make the right choices when they are surrounded by tempting unhealthy choices and parents aren’t around to guide them. So I try to device subtle ways to educate them about energy consumption, bodily or otherwise and how each little choice matters.

Maxi summer dresses

I love quick projects; they are like instant gratification and add just the right amount of tingle in your brain to make the necessary chores around the house more bearable. So ended up making a couple of Maxi dresses for the girls over the weekend...

Summer Favorites - Picnic & Farmers' Market

Since Minnesota favors winters a lot, its residents makes up for the short duration of summer through extra love they shower on it, specially the amount of time spent outdoors...

This week was the first time that four of us could go for a bike ride together, its a big milestone and you'd totally understand what I mean if you have rider with training wheels in your family.
Besides the milestone event we also managed to squeeze in our usual weekend activities - a visit to the farmers market and also a picnic...

Fresh flowers, locally grown vegetables followed by some pistachio gelato at the St.Paul farmers market. And I also found some succulents for my terrarium... 

A little excursion in the sun increased our appetite multifold and so a picnic by the river was in perfect order.   

Berrilicious Summer...

It aint summer till its strawberry picking season...
Luckily we managed to get out to the orchard a few times this summer to indulge in this delicious luxury...

And what a day to be posting these pictures on, yesterday was the coldest day in history of Minnesota in July. We barely touched 60F...

It was a berry nice day

We went strawberry picking this morning. It was partly cloudy and the sunlight was sieving through the clouds. It was just about perfect for picking strawberry and having a picnic. We made it back to the hay-ride fine but while waiting for other passengers got drenched in the rain. Here are some pictures:

Both girls loved the berries and kept eating them till it was all gone. I refrained myself from eating too many even though they talk about antioxidants and fibers.

Then this evening, I painted my thumb green and spent some time with my long neglected plants. I had a few seeds lying around the house and I seeded them today though I don't know if its the right season for them...