I asked Aidan if he wanted to go on an adventure today after Church. Always up for a challenge, he said yes. So, I gave him his mission-turn these strawberries into jam. He accepted and made Wyatt his second in command. We got right to work.
Their first order of business was to taste the strawberries to see if they were tasty enough for jam. After deeming the fruit, "way good," we discovered we had a little sister problem. After discussing the issues, we decided that she would help taste test.
So, we put her in her high chair and fed her strawberries and waffles. It kept her happy. These are the 16 lbs of strawberries. Aidan and Wyatt had a big job ahead of them. 
Since Aidan can't use sharp knives yet, he put me to work cutting the tops off and chopping them up. Aidan took this picture of me slicing up the strawberries.
Their first order of business was to taste the strawberries to see if they were tasty enough for jam. After deeming the fruit, "way good," we discovered we had a little sister problem. After discussing the issues, we decided that she would help taste test.
So, we put her in her high chair and fed her strawberries and waffles. It kept her happy. These are the 16 lbs of strawberries. Aidan and Wyatt had a big job ahead of them. 
Since Aidan can't use sharp knives yet, he put me to work cutting the tops off and chopping them up. Aidan took this picture of me slicing up the strawberries. 
Wyatt eating "apples". His duties mainly consisted of eating every other strawberry that I cut up. He insisted on calling the strawberries apples-even when we told him over and over again that they were strawberries. In fact, he would "correct" us, "No, mama, apples." He ate a lot of "apples."
Aidan's first big job was to crush up the strawberries. This handy dandy little tool was heaven sent in our strawberry jam making adventure. Even Aidan could turn the handle and it really helped him to feel apart of the process (since this was his adventure and all).
Wyatt wanted to help too. He got tired of eating his "apples." He turned a few cranks. This really was a family project. (Jeremy got out the big container of sugar for us. That was his contribution. Oh, and he helped clean the kitchen after we were done too.) 
Here Aidan is adding the strawberry puree to the sugar and pectin. He really liked to say the word "pectin." Again, Wyatt helped. 
And here is the fruit of our labors. 8 lbs of strawberries turned into 11 1/2 jars of freezer jam. I would have done the other 8 lbs, but I overestimated how many strawberries I needed, and I ran out of both pectin and jars. I guess I am going to the store tomorrow (perhaps that is tomorrow's "adventure"). I was so proud of Aidan. He really stuck through this project, asking questions at every turn, wanting to know why we did that and how that worked. This was a lot of fun to do. I might have to make "adventures" something we do more often. Aidan and Wyatt really seemed to enjoy it and I had fun watching them learn.
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