U-pick strawberries

We had the girls out pretty early this morning so we could hit the bank and run assorted other errands. By the time we got started to our destination two out of three kids were asleep. Sydney, by default, got the chance to spend some time with me shopping for books while pushing her new stroller. She scoured the shelves she could reach for books that looked appealing to her, books she recognized or characters that looked familiar. When she found books that she really liked she placed them gently in her stroller and kept looking. When she found books that really thrilled her like Fly Guy, she screamed with joy and handed me the book for safe keeping "Yook Mommy, FLY GUY!!!". When she was hot, tired and ready to give up she told me that she wanted to see her daddy and went and sat in the car with him while I shopped. Guess what the girls got for Hanukkah tonight?
After the shopping and the napping we decided to do "something fun"- U-Pick Strawberries. This just opened and we were unsure of what to expect, we certainly did not expect the little oasis in the middle of the city. We walked into an organic general store behind a Kentucky Fried Chicken where the women were wearing aprons and bonnets. In the back of the store was a door leading out to at least ten acres full of organic fruits and vegetables grown hydroponically, miniature donkeys, swans and exotic birds. The girls were so excited to see everything they let us park their babies and strollers under some shade so we could pick some berries.
We have been reading Blueberries For Sal this week so the kids were excited to get their buckets and fill them with fruit, thank goodness there was no threat of bears like the story! Armed with scissors and a bucket the kids marched down aisles looking for red berries they could cut off the vine and eat. There were so many red delicious berries we did not have to look hard. At first the scissors were hard for the kids to manipulate on their own but Matt showed them what to do and they tried their hardest to do it without any help.


Even Jordan got in on the action!
The kids had a hard time understanding that we could not eat every single berry they picked. We explained over and over that we needed to pay for the fruit and they could eat as much as they wanted at home.

They seemed thrilled when it was their turn to carry the basket.