Oh How Sweet The Berries!

We are repeat offenders at Sweet Berry Farm.  Every year, we make our way out there to enjoy the picking, the petting, the popsicles, and the pie.  In fact, it is such an important part of our lives (the quality time together, not the pie), Dad took the day off work, and Kaelan played “hooker” from school so we could keep the tradition alive.

And don’t worry.  I made sure we cleared up that whole hooker/hooky slip-up.

 

This boy never met a strawberry he didn’t like.  He is ready to attack those fields.

Since it was a school day, many of our usual crowd could not make it.  However, we did meet some of our friends there, and enjoyed getting to spend the day with them.

 

Kaelan and Bryce pick away.

Kaelan with some of her loot.

Daddy and Seth went off into the fields to pick, and when they came back, there was evidence of foul play. 

We probably should have weighed the kid instead of our basket.

 

After picking, we enjoyed a wonderful picnic lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around farm feeding and petting the animals and eating a fresh strawberry popsicle or five (just me). 

We couldn’t leave Marble Falls without making the traditional stop at the Bluebonnet Café and eating some amazing pie. 

  

The drive is breathtaking at times.  All those wonderful wildflowers, streaming a rainbow along the highway. 

Here’s to you, Sweet Berry Farms!  

A place where families can grow traditions, and grown men and school-aged children can live like truants!

Wildflower Quest Part II

Call me a glutton, but I tried it again.   I plopped my kids out in the middle of a field of flowers and requested they ignore all things around them (including each other), smile straight into the lens of the camera, and give me the perfect shot.

Nope.

There was kind of a smile working here, but he was probably pooping and he didn’t look at the camera.  No good.

Now this girl has the stuff.  She knows how to work the camera.

She captures all the emotions.

Sweet.  Vulnerable.  Peaceful.  Lost and stranded.  Confused. 

Being swallowed by a field of bluebonnets.   

Now, go stand by your brother and hopefully we can pull this together.

 

 

Errrr…no.

An airplane flying overhead gave us a few solo shots, but once we tried to add in Sister, the spark was gone.

So, somewhere along the line in this photo shoot, I figured it out.   I take pictures because I want to capture that moment.   Deep down, I am hoping to capture that feeling I had in that moment.  You don’t have to have two little faces looking directly at a camera to get that feeling. 

When I look at these pictures right now, I get that moment again.  

That moment when my kids were little and carefree and playing in the flowers.  One giddy  at the wildflower bouquet she compiled, the other taking in all the sights and smells and sounds with eager discovering eyes. 

The quest was successful. 

I got the pictures I had hoped for.

Pretend Summer

Though you pretty much can live year round in flip flops in this neck of the woods, occasionally, we experience a little fluctuation with the weather. 

Such was the case last month when we actually had the weather take a dip into the the 50’s one day, and then climb into the 80’s the next day.

Kaelan recognized this change and declared it time to hit the pool.   We had to burst her bubble and tell her it really wasn’t summer yet, and the it was spring.  The pool was still too cold for this type of weather.

Our fish was ready for the water, so as the day grew warmer, she kept trying to convince us it was “so hot that only the pool could cool her off”.  Seeing that her dramatic antics were getting nowhere, she opted to instead declare the day a “Pretend Summer” day.   She asked if we could do some things around the house that we would normally do in the summer.

I was down with this.   We needed to clear the winter weeds out of the play area anyhow, so thus begin our Pretend Summer day.

First, the kids helped dad clean out the sandbox and add new sand.   They were useless helpers for the next 2 hours.

Sand= free babysitting.

Next, they played carwash with dad.   They even blasted really tacky 70’s and 80’s music from the stereo as they scrubbed daddy’s truck. 

Kaelan hosed down the truck and her brother.

We finished off Pretend Summer with a water gun fight and some popsicles with the neighbor kids on our driveway.  

Kaelan shivered as she sat in her wet clothes and chomped her popsicle.

“Man, it is way too cold to be wet out here in this weather”,  she complained.

I felt confident she understood now why we said no to swimming.

“Can we get in the pool?”,  she asked through chattering teeth.

Wildflower Quest

Lord only knows why I think if I take two grumpy, tired children out into the middle of a field of bluebonnets after a LONG day they will magically become cooperative and happy. 

They did smile.  And laugh.  And play.   But when it came time for some pictures, they squinted and complained about the sun, and being hungry, and their fear of snakes attacking them in the tall flowers.

Geez.   You know how kids are.

 

“Yes, brother.   In single shots we will show her we know what she wants.  However, we will not give her this gift in our shots together.  Deal?”

Almost…….

Almost…….

So we left the field that day, with me feeling defeated in my quest for a nice picture with both children happy and smiling and looking towards the camera.   But I vowed to return or conquer another field with a vengeance……..

I show no fear in the face of these dragon tempered children.

He Waits All Day For This

The second we walk in the door, right after her backpack hits the floor and her jacket is flung over the chair, she plops down on the floor, let’s out a big sigh and yanks her shoes and socks off her feet.  

She has this strange little ritual.  She takes off her shoes.  Carefully removes her sweaty sock, and then takes her finger and slowly rakes it between each toe.

What?  She always says when she sees me giving her a strange look.

There is stuff in there that needs to come out!

I just think it best not to question any further.

Right on her tail, comes her brother.  He toddles in.  Plops down beside her.  Sometimes he yanks off his shoes, but most days he just reaches over to examine his sister’s feet.  He has seen the ritual, and much like me, he is clueless as to what she feels so compelled to sweep out of those toes.  

When the foot study is over, he begins his daily cry.

SNACK!   SNACK, PEEEEEEZZZZ!!!!

And so it goes.  Each day, this same little ritual.   They pick her toes, eat their snack, and talk about their ups and downs of the day.  

He waits ALL day for this.

The other day, I heard the sister make a change in the routine.  

Bubba, I am not going to take off my shoes until we are done with snack.   It was hot outside, and my feet are nasty.   It will ruin your snack.  Trust me.

 

He seemed okay with the change.

A Valentine Date

I found these super cute pictures on my phone.   They are from Valentine’s Day.   Darian had asked me if he could take Kaelan on a Valentine date.  I told him maybe in 15 years (good thing he just knows 1st grade math), but if he wanted to come over and have a little meal with her, he could.

They dined on a heart shaped pizza like about half the Earth’s population did that night.

I found it to be so sweet that the two of them requested to eat in another room to give Doug and I our own private Valentine meal.  Then, they came back in about 2 minutes later and requested that I be their waitress. 

I obliged and took their orders.  Darian ordered for both of them.  

2 salads.  2 sides of fruit.  2 milks on the rocks.

He also requested a candle.   I gave him the Glade from the downstairs bathroom.

I drew the line when he requested a long stem rose just before dessert was served.

Sorry, Casanova!   Not this time.