Sweet Summer Fun - part 2

Thursday, June 10th found us at Butler's Orchard for strawberry picking. Admittedly, we were a little late in the season to be picking strawberries, but fortunately the cold Winter helped the crops last a little longer than usual.

If our schedule allows it, we try to go strawberry picking, blueberry picking and apple picking each year. I've sort of made this into a tradition with the kids. I love getting outdoors and doing something that is good, healthy fun. Plus, it is a great lesson for the kids on where the fruit comes from and how it grows. My kids are big fruit eaters and I love that they really enjoy eating the fruit when we get back home that they helped pick. Strawberry and blueberry picking occurs with friends and apple picking is done as a family in the Fall.

To my delight, we had 17 kids (ages 5 and under) join us for strawberry picking. The weather cooperated and it was a good morning to go.

This year was the first one that Samantha understood what we were doing and had a blast. She ate strawberries faster than I could put in the container. It's a good thing they don't weigh the kids before and after. At one point she decided to just sit directly in the strawberry bush and get as close as possible with the fruit. After an hour, she was covered in strawberry juice head to toe - front and back!! Fortunately I travel with back-up clothes and did a quick outfit change before getting her back in the car.

Ian always enjoys our outings to pick strawberries and does a great job of picking the kind of berries you'd want to take home. He takes pride in picking the most perfect ones.

Afterwards we went to a Panera Bread nearby and got majorly lucky with scoring a table big enough to hold 14 kids and 6 moms. At first there was two moms and their kids sitting waiting for their food to be ready, but before we could even say anything, they saw all of us and got up and moved. Only one gentleman working on his computer needed to be asked to move to a different table and he did so happily. I later bought him a cookie and told him he will have good karma for a long time to come. He said he's been there with 3 kids this age and understood. Considering this was during prime time lunch hour, I love that getting a table big enough for all of us was effortless and made our outing even better!

So far our summer is off to fantastic start and I look forward to keeping the good times going.