Strawberries

Strawberries have been in season for about a week now. But the thought of taking both kids and going by myself has seemed a bit daunting. So on Friday I invited a friend who had never picked strawberries before. We got there and it was pretty hot. Her daughter is Dominic's age and her son is about 18 months. I found out it's just as hard w/ a friend. In her words "this isn't how I romanticized it on the way over here."

Here is a small bit of why she was so disillusioned about strawberry picking -

Caitlin was hot and tired and so screamed the whole time. I had her in the car seat and the place has little wagons that you can use to carry the berries. So she was on the wagon w/ the buckets while my friend and I tried to keep the other kids from putting rotten and green berries in our buckets. Even worse was trying to keep them from eating these berries. Not much luck there. Then I heard a gasp and looked up to see Dominic's little friend w/ this very strange look on her face as she watched my son drop his pants and pee right there in front of her. Then we had to keep them from stomping in the "puddle". Needless to say we didn't get very many berries picked before the stress got to us and we both left. Something tells me I'll never be able to convince her to go again. Sigh!

On Sunday I left the kids w/ Jon and went and picked over 20 lbs of strawberries by myself. It's amazing what I can get done in a short time with no children. I'd almost forgotten what that was like. So now my freezer and frig are full of berries and we'll be having strawberry shortcake for supper tonight.