Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Strawberry Picking

Every year, one of my favorite things to do is to pick strawberries. Growing up we would go to Holden Brothers Produce, plastic tubs in hand, and fill them up with fresh strawberries. I'm sure I ate a few before they made it to the tub. It was a tradition.

One of the things I have looked forward to is taking Kylie to pick strawberries for the first time. Since strawberry picking season in Wisconsin is almost up, I decided this morning to make haste to the strawberry patch, and see if I could pick enough to make some homemade jam, and save a few for putting on top of pound cake. It was a good plan, execution was a little lacking.

Taking a 13 month old who wants to walk ALL OVER THE PLACE to pick strawberries is only a good idea if Dad is coming too. I learned this the hard way. As Kylie and I made our way to the appointed row, she decided she'd rather visit with the other kids that were picking strawberries a few rows over. Before I knew it, she had walked over a few rows of strawberries to make it to her new "friends", and had taken a few falls in the strawberries along the way. Therefore, she had strawberry juice all over her bum, pants, and shoes. I ran to grab her before she got too far, picked her up, which proceeded to transfer the strawberry goo to my favorite jeans. What was supposed to be a wonderful, picturesque opportunity is now disasterous. I managed to feed her some goldfish while I grabbed as many strawberries as possible, and made my way to the car. Little one kicking and screaming the whole time. (I love that she's fiesty!!) Note to self: go on a day that Steve can come too. I did manage to take a couple pictures before the outfit was "decorated".



Despite the poor planning on my part, I'm glad that we got to go get our strawberries. They are beautiful and delicious, and I think despite her times of frustration, Kylie had fun. This experience taught me that I still have SO MUCH to learn as a parent, and I'm grateful that I have my little buddy Kylie with me to share in my successes and failures (such as today....)

2 comments:

O'Brien family said...

I love the pink outfit with the green strawberry leaves behind. Your experience brought back lots of memories of how hard it really was to do anything when you leave the house!

Galloway Fam said...

I wish we could make jam together.