Strawberry Fields. First dayS of Summer

The summer is finally here and we aren't missing one moment of it moping around the house! We started the weekend with Kindergarten Field day, ended it with a day in the strawberry fields with an outdoor movie birthday party for my friends son in between. You know you had a good fun filled weekend when you are exhausted on Monday morning instead of being well rested!. We both took the day off on Friday to be attend one of the many end of year Kindergarten activities that have been scheduled (we missed the family picnic on Tuesday so we felt pretty bad.) Like a normal day, I put Arie on the bus and then returned to clean up the house. I figured since we had a "bonus" day and a few hours in the morning before we had to go to her school, we'd clean the house from top to bottom. Lets just say, the other members of the home who are old enough to have an opinion weren't pleased but by the time we headed out at 11:30, the house was spotless, dustless and well organised. What can I say, I enjoy a clean home..to a fault maybe. Anyway, we decided to go to a farm we had been to when Arielle was younger and pick our own produce. The kids had no idea what to expect but when we arrived, they immediately started running around.

Not only does this farm have pick you own food but it also has a miniature village, horses, chickens, goat, ducks and a very voracious swan. I loved the little wooden carts you get to pull around the property with. We put the kid sin there with some apple cider donuts and juice packs for the ride.

As we headed down to the fields, we realized ( or I did) that we had our work cut out for us because there was quite a crowd and amongst them were strawberry picking aficionados apparently. I am rubbish in the fields, it seemed to much to squat and look under the leaves of rows and rows of berries only to find the the perfect plump berry with a huge bite taken out of it. I eventually go into it but it took a minute.   

Our kids had no problem finding strawberries to pick eat even though there was a "sample conservatively" sign cautioning us on our arrival. Evalie was in heaven because she loves berries and given a field she will eat!

Arielle cautiously picked only the best berries mostly ones that were small and red but Evalie was eating everything in sight. She was so overwhelmed by being surrounded by her favorite food. After a few minutes she was covered in berry juice so we had no way to hide that she was doing more than her fair share of sampling. Luckily the farmers must be used to kids doing this because just up the row we encountered another very guilty looking two year old who was also covered in red juice, his cheeks so full he couldn't even speak...(boy in orange shirt). .so funny.

Once we had picked what seemed like 5 pounds of strawberries, we decided to head back up the hill to see what else we could get into. We met the farm dog; a huge, furry brown dog who is quite friendly to little people.

We paid for our bounty and bought some more apple cider donuts..then headed down to the little village. Not before the kids said hello to a really big horse and played on some carnival type rides.

Evalie was a little apprehensive about these little houses but Arielle when trunning in form one to other, she had similar structures at her school.

She was even a bit scared to feed the goats which was surprising because she's usually a very daring little child. We fed the ducks off beautiful wobbly pier wiht a nice view.

There were smelly chickens, a loud cock crowing and a feisty peacock. I was telling my husband that it reminded me of the opening scene from one of the most popular shows from growing up in Nigeria in the 80's called "cock crow at dawn" our own version of Days of Our Lives or Santa Barbara.

After a quick go around on the train, the kids played a bit more in the little village and then we decided to go home. Maybe not as fun for Arie as a day on the beach but it was still fun. Another day well spent. I have a whole calendar of activities to do this summer with the kids. Every weekend we will be on another adventure to places within driving distance from where we live and hopefully spend a week on the beach in August. Its shaping up to be nice summer even though we can't go resort style. We'll save that for next year.