Strawberries

June means fresh strawberries in New York! I cannot remember the last time I went strawberry picking and it's probably because it took a lot of work and was messy. I do remember when my mom took Lily in 2007 right after I had Jamison. Within 5 minutes of Lily's return she was soaking in the bathtub in my attempt to get all the strawberry stains off of her skin.

So I decided this would be a perfect activity for the kids to do. Mainly because I love strawberries and if they picked them for me then I wouldn't have to do any work.

I gave them each a pint and instructions to pick the red strawberries. Jamison interpreted this as "eat any and all strawberries whether green, black, brown, or smooshed on the ground and collect none."

You might notice an odd smudge in the upper right corner of this picture. The whole time I was out there I thought the smudge was in my contact. When I finally downloaded the pictures on the computer I realized it was on my camera lens. Please try to ignore it. I can't, but I hope you can.

I dressed my kids in clothes that I wouldn't care about if they were destroyed by dirt and strawberry juice. Jamie was wearing a Halloween shirt and Lily's said "If you think I'm cute you should see my aunt." I'm 99% sure this was a hand-me-down and not really from one of her aunts.

Why bother walking up and down the rows when you can just sit and eat? They should have weighed Jamie before and after and charged me for all the ones he ate.

Lily, can you TRY to take a normal picture?

We went with our friends Nathan and Maddie and my friend, Michelle. I thought it was funny that they were all dressed in bright colors - Maddie in red, Jamison in orange, Lily in purple, and Nathan in yellow.

Near the end it was getting a little warm so Jamison made do.

In the end it wasn't nearly as messy as it should have been (thankfully). Left to right - Jamison (topless at this point), Lily, Nathan, and Maddie.

Before we left we bought cider donuts for the kids. When we got home Jamison was comatose from the fructose and sucrose. Stupid blur.

While Jamie took a nap I went through the strawberries to throw away the bad ones and wash the good ones. Lily's basket had strange looking strawberries in it. Apparently she tested hers before deciding if they were worthy or not to be kept.

I quickly realized we had too many strawberries. I found a random recipe for a strawberry cake and thanks to Jamison's extra-long nap was able to finish this in time for dinner. It looks better than it tasted - the Grand Marnier in the frosting threw off the whole thing.