strawberry pickin' time!

the kids and i had such a fun time picking strawberries last week! well, let me rephrase that.... ethan and i had such a fun time picking strawberries last week! caroline was not real interested in the manual labor aspect of the day, and amelia would have loved to escape from the confines of her stroller... but we all had a good time, i think. i've never been strawberry pickin' in my life, so i was happy to tag along with kristie and karina for our first strawberry picking experience!!!! we dragged the stroller alllllll the way down our assigned row of strawberries and picked back toward the beginning till we were ready to stop. (notice that we were given the row with the most abundant grass to plow through with the stroller! twice!) i just had to laugh at poor amelia sitting all alone in this huge field of strawberries. :) don't feel too sorry for her. she had an all-you-can-eat buffet of strawberries...


so kristie gave us the lowdown on which berries to pick and how to pick 'em. ethan was gung-ho and went right to work finding just the right berries. here's his first pick!


caroline's attitude was more along the lines of... "you mean we have to fill up this whole box with berries that we pick ourselves?"


she did finally pick a few with my help, but she was much more interested in eating the fruits of her labor (literally).





and then she was ready to go see the cows. too bad we'd only picked 20 berries at that point (and had about 10 in the box!). ethan, on the other hand, was a super partner for strawberry picking because he doesn't like strawberries!


when i wasn't telling caroline to put her shoes back on or confirming, "yes, ethan, that's a good one to pick" or telling caroline to quit waving grass (for the cows) in ethan's face or moving the stroller canopy to shade amelia's fair skin, i managed to find some pretty dandy berries. check out this one...


i have to include this picture so that i can remember the kids as they were on our first strawberry picking outing. next year, Lord-willing, amelia will be running up and down these rows, caroline will probably still be begging to see the cows, and ethan will be quite the independent strawberry picker. but this picture defines our 2010 strawberry pickin'... ethan worried about the bees, caroline finally picking some berries...on the row we were not assigned, and amelia squirming out of the stroller!


and i'm so glad i put pants on amelia so that her legs wouldn't get to much sun!! ha!

karina found a little ladybug on a strawberry... can you see it on her arm? i'm sure the bug felt right at home since karina was wearing the juice of several strawberries!! :)


so at this point, i am thinking that we are going to be here all day to fill up our box, and i look over to see that kristie and her helper are already close to maxing out their box...


then kristie kindly informed me that you don't have to fill the box... they just weigh it and charge for what you picked. well, that sounded good to me! kristie helped us fill up our box a little more, and we were DONE! you can see in my very first picture that we got close, but we did not stay to fill ours up to the top. here's the kids in front of the strawberry field.


as we were leaving the field, tammy and cindy and the rest of karina's cousins were just arriving to fill their boxes. while they picked, we went to see the cows. here is a very happy caroline finally getting to see that cow.


and what a cow this was! we laughed at this bull, who just moments before, had his whole face shoved in his pile of hay. eating was definitely a priority.


we saw chickens, rabbits, bees (enclosed, thank you!), peacocks, roosters, goats, turkeys, and more. caroline's very favorite was this sweet baby calf. she could've stayed all day petting this thing. maybe next time i'll let her pet the calf while we pick berries. :) if only you could rent pens there. (juuuuuuuuuuust kidding!)


i said i was kidding!


we finished seeing the animals about the same time tammy and cindy and the kids finished picking. i was so, so happy to get this precious shot of all the kids in front of the field. get them all looking!? are you kidding!? their bodies are in the frame. they are somewhat still. it's a winner!!!!!


we decided to take all the kids on a tractor-pulled wagon ride, and we had a few minutes to wait for the next ride. ethan kept himself busy with the bean bag toss...


while the girls took up horseshoes. i wish i'd videotaped this!!!!!!!!!! they were too funny. karina started it with these hilarious facial expressions and body motions as she aimed that horseshoe as serious as could be. caroline did what any girl cousin would do and copied her every move... right in front of where karina was aiming. it was a miracle that they did not hurt each other (though i think ethan did fall victim to a flying horseshoe at one point.). check out the look of concentration on caroline's face. and notice she is still holding the grass for the cows.


we loaded up for the hayride (i don't know what you call it...there wasn't any hay...), and the kids had fun touring the strawberry patch by way of tractor. as we bumpity-bump-bumped, we moms enjoyed watching our children, an almost seamless mixture of cousins and friends, laugh and love being together. what a blessing it is to share sweet memories with each other.


i love these sisters! oh how the Lord has blessed me with these women of God.


and i love these boys! this picture melts me.


we hopped off the trailer, guzzled some water, and headed home! we have been loving our fresh strawberries, and at the rate we've been devouring them, we'll have to head back to the farm before too long! it's nice to know i can order a box already picked for a great deal if we're not up for picking. i'll end with my favorite shots of the kids from our day in the fields.




and i love this one of cousin karina! this was obviously before she sampled her strawberries! look at that clean white shirt! :)


so now we've been strawberry picking. this will definitely be a yearly tradition for us. i'm glad this farm is close by. do you out-of-town blog readers have a strawberry farm you visit? if you're not sure, check and see! it's definitely worth a visit. and for the sake of your three-year-old, i hope there's cows there, too.