Strawberries

He clearly has a rough life.

She just sat still and ate.

We did our first round of strawberry picking today. I say first round because we often need a bit more strawberries than we got today to see us through the year but we've learned it is best to get them in batches so as not to become overwhelmed with processing them. I'm hoping to make several batches of strawberry jam and triple berry jam as well as some strawberry syrup.  And just put some in the freezer for later in the year.

I only took 6 of the kids with me since Alan took 3 of the boys to go work on the farm.  The ladies working at the strawberry fields already thought our crew was a large family until the children informed them that a bunch of kids had been left behind to do other work.  Call me crazy, but I love the incredulous looks on people's faces when they learn something of that sort. Followed by the sheer amazement in their voices as they say "And your kids are just so well behaved."  Because, of course, you must always be shocked by children behaving as they should I suppose.  Ah well. We had a good time and the kids are looking forward to going again.

These two were my big kid crew today.

The fruits of our labor.