Strawberry Season

It is the start of my favorite time of year - BERRY season. And the girls have embraced this with open arms. We started getting strawberries from our farm share at the beginning of April, and they were good. Much better than store bought ones. But THEN we went to pick strawberries and boy are they GREAT. We cannot get enough of them. We've been twice now - once with Grandma and Aunt Katie, and once with Hayden's class - and we have plans to go at least one more time. They are delicious and amazing.

We had a great time heading to pick with Grandma and Aunt Katie. Eliza wondered up and down our assigned row, eating strawberries from whoever would give them to her. Aunt Katie was an especially good target for berries. Hayden helped pick some, but also did her share of eating. It's a good thing they don't require the kids to be weighed before and after.

Mmmmm, juicy strawberry.

doesn't she look so grown up?!

getting berries from Grandma

Having Aunt Katie visit made the strawberries picking even more fun!

Eliza and part of our haul.
I tried to get her to look up but either the sun was too bright or she couldn't tear her eyes away from the ruby red fruit!

Strawberry girls

(note: Hayden insisted on being the "girl" so Katie's on her knees for this pose!)

Strawberry coma.

Is there a limit to how many strawberries a toddler should consume at one time? If so, Eliza probably exceeded it.

Three days later, I went with Hayden and her class to pick. I like the phrase "strawberry beard" to describe the face of a child who has been enjoying fresh berries in the field. Unfortunately no pics to share from the field trip. We used those berries to make some strawberry shortcake to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. And we ate a bunch too. :) Strawberry shortcake was a big hit with both the girls. Jason and I enjoyed ours later in the evening with just about as much gusto, but less on our noses.

Not the most exciting video, but she's just so intent on eating. She won't answer any of my questions. She's barely distracted by Hayden's chatting. She picked all the berries off first and is now working on the cool whip and the shortbread biscuit.


Then this morning we made jam. Hayden liked helping to smush the berries. Eliza asked for a turn too, but when she got up on the stool, all she really wanted to do was swipe more berries to eat. I actually had to tell both girls to stop eating all the strawberries! And Hayden was ready to have the jam with lunch - it was not quite ready for that. Luckily we had a jar from last year in the fridge.

Happy Berry Season!

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We also had a nice visit with Aunt Katie and her boyfriend Jeff, even when strawberries weren't involved. Katie and Jeff took the girls and my camera out to get ice cream and had a great time. Hayden knew exactly what she wanted - vanilla custard in a cone with sprinkles. And Eliza quickly figured out that she did not like Katie's fruity italian ice as much as Jeff's custard and ice chocolate/peanut butter mixture. They even stopped at the park briefly to play.

Thanks for coming to visit Aunt Katie! Come back soon!