kaleidoscoping chaos...: Berry Berry Fun Farm Friday!

Today was Humpday Hijinks - take 2 (remember our dress rehearsal last week - see here). Except it isn't Humpday (Wednesday), it is Friday... but we are flexible over here - kaleidoscoping our lives away.. you know.

STRAWBERRY PICKING! In honor of May being Strawberry month and today being June 1, our unofficial start of summer - we (our buddies and us)went strawberry picking! The rain did not frighten us this time... it was now or never. Those strawberry fields do not hang around forever, despite the song lyrics.

We met up with our buddies (they are now blogging at My Adventures with Buster Yellow) in the parking lot at 10:30 at Homstead Farms. Of course when we got there, my kids were sleeping...

Up and out I told them. I made the executive decision to take the stroller through the farm. Good decision.

We hung out with the animals first. The goats, chickens, and pigs. The kids really liked the animals. Vera especially liked the goats! And they liked her too.

Then we trekked out to the fields. First, we walked through the tart cherry trees and picked some of them. The trees were small so the kids could totally pick them. Jonah did not like the cherries at all - picture smiley Jonah eating a cute little red cherry... then picture Jonah spitting it out and making a lemon face. Vera picked them and decided to eat them - and yes they have pits... and apparently she liked them!   Due to the choking aspect of these cherries, I had to back her way up and prevent her from picking/eating the cherries! We hear our buddies are going to be making maraschino cherries from them... we are waiting to taste them when they are done!

Side note, we brought a "bag" to carry our loot in (the stuff we were going to pick). Well, we were supposed to bring something to carry the stuff in. Of course I totally forgot that part of the excursion but managed to bring everything else... so I grabbed one of the random reusable shopping bags in the car and we used that. Not the right carrying vessel. Everything we picked was pretty much smooshed and gross after Jonah carried/dragged it round the whole morning.

Back to the story.  We followed the path past the cherry trees but hit a fork in the road. The boys decided which way we should go (because the moms apparently were not paying attention when we received the initial instructions) - it turns out it was the road less traveled and we did not get to the strawberries... so we had to back track and go down the other path. Finally, there it was - the strawberry patch!

I parked the stroller at the edge and we all jumped (literally) right into the patch.

But first, another digression. I have been strawberry picking many times. With friends, boy friends, family and even by myself (growing up on Long Island - it is the thing to do in June).  We would always come back with a ton of amazing strawberries. It was fun and never took that long. We'd gather those babies up and put them in the blender and make some strawberry margaritas! (and some other strawberry stuff) We'd freeze strawberies for more margaritas later in the summer! When you go on a play date for 3 yr old boys and a tagalong 1 yr old sister... this is not how it works!

So there we are the 2 moms, 2 boys and Vera in the patch. There wasn't really anyone else around - that was cool. The boys were into the picking for about 6 minutes. Vera was totally into picking and then eating all the strawberries and me and my buddy were trying to pick strawberries while carrying backpacks on our backs and sometimes I was holding Vera... and as we explained to the boys - the strawberries grow on the ground in bushes not up in the air on trees! Geez, my back and legs were reminding me of this fact over and over again!

I am complaining a bit, but it was actually pretty hysterical and very fun. The boys were hilarious - talking about the strawberries, the bushes, their bags and who picked more strawberries, when actually neither of them did much of any picking at all... And Vera was in love with the strawberries. My kids managed to somehow get strawberry juice ALL OVER THEM!!! I mean from their noses to their toes! They felt and smelt like big strawberries when we got home.

LUNCHTIME
We had brought along a picnic and got ready to have lunch.  Everyone had lunch except Jonah.  Jonah had a supersized order of "I AM TURNING THREE AND GOING TO HAVE SUPER DOOPER TEMPER TANTRUM UNTIL YOU PICK ME UP AND LOCK ME IN MY CARSEAT" with a side of "KICKING, SCREAMING, SPITTING AND CHOKING"...

We met back at our place for crafts and playtime.  Vera napped and the boys played. We read two berry books (Jamberry! - which I love & The Mouse, The Strawberry & The Big Hungry Bear - which is sort of interesting) Buddy R brought over two crafts and Jonah did them with her and did them really well.

(1) Strawberry Sun Catcher - clear contact paper, red and pink tissue paper, scissors, green paper and tape. Tape a piece of clear contact paper to the table stick side up. Cut up tissue paper and stick on contact paper. Cover with another piece of contact paper- sticky side down. Cut it into the shape of a strawberry. Cut a green leaf top out and stick to strawberry.

(2) Strawberry Finger Prints - red ink, paper, green markers. Uses fingers to make red stamps on paper (Jonah also used his toes...) Then draw green leaves on stamps and color the patch.

Buddy J read the books with us (they both liked that part) but he was having a picnic and going on the trip to his grandma's house and didn't want to do the art.

There was lots of playing, running, jumping, laughing, screaming, and tackling to be had.

Around 3pm Vera got up and our buddies went home.

Jonah wanted to do more "strawberry" things... Where is that kaleidoscope?

After snacks, we made strawberry smoothie ice pops. I salvaged about 2 cups of strawberries from our adventure and we blended them up with some vanilla yogurt and then poured them into our new ice pop molds. We'll see tomorrow how they turned out.

In years gone past, I'd be sipping on my strawberry margarita right about now... looks like I'll be having smooshed strawberry vanilla smoothie ice pops for snacks tomorrow instead. I got 2 thumbs up from Jonah at bedtime tonight and Vera adamantly shook her head yes when I asked her if she had fun today and gave me the biggest hug ever.  I am secretly going to have a nice glass of "strawberry" colored wine tonight. Friday at the farm was berry berry good. And yes, I am still tired... although today I think anyone would be.

Shabbot Shalom y'all!