Like a Butterfly emerging from a Cocoon or a Bear coming out of hibernation....

FINALLY!!!! Spring has sprung and is (I think) here to stay. It's odd that it's May 9th and this is the first week it's actually seemed like summer is on the way. My Easter Lily hasn't even bloomed yet! Weird. But I do think it is finally safe to put away our coats and long pants and bring out the shorts and cute little summer outfits. I mean, how cute is this?

So this morning, Julie and I set off with all the kids but Sam and went to Stewart Farms to pick strawberries. Max was pretty excited, although he clearly had no idea what we were going to do because he kept asking me when we were going to pick apples.

When we arrived, Max and Nathanael took their buckets and were off! They were quite eager and willing to pick strawberries...with no regard for ripeness. Green, red, whatever...in the bucket.

Well, some of them went in the bucket; Max actually preferred to take one bite and then toss the rest of the berry on the ground.

Step One: Taste the Berry

Step Two: Close Eyes and Savor the Berry

Luckily, he soon tired of this and began running up and down the rows with his bucket, stopping from time to time to pick a berry of questionable ripeness and toss it in there. (I was somewhat surprised when I examined his pickings to see that he had about 75% ripe strawberries). At some point I noticed that his bucket was empty. "Max, where are your strawberries??" "I dumped them out!" Great, that's productive. So by this time, he was running willy-nilly around the field with an empty bucket, from time to time veering off to play around a greenhouse fan that could chop his fingers off and/or trying to join a school field trip. I guess he did manage to pick a few more berries as sustenance here and there.

1. "Here is a Berry" 2. Chomp 3. "Mmm, that's one good berry!"

 But soon enough, as usually happens with the Ludwig children, our wholesome family outing had dissolved into Max playing in a mud puddle and melting down due to strawberry/sun/fun delirium and Tessa screaming in her stroller because, well, that's what she likes to do. In fact, I only managed to pick one bucket of strawberries whereas Julie managed to pick two buckets for herself and then one for me! By the time we were done (well, by the time Julie was done), Max and Nathanael were covered in mud, Tessa and Claire were grumpy and ready for naps, and Julie and I were sweating. But AH did I love that sunshine.

Here are our little strawberry-nonpicking-assistants in action. At least they looked cute, albeit confused as to what they were doing there.

The boys had to be stripped for the ride home. I guess that's the sign of a fun outing, at least in their book. I tried to get them both to cooperate for a post-picking picture, but I think Max had a different idea of post-"picking"....

So now I have this load of strawberries...and Chris has intentions of making his homemade strawberry jam. YUM. He better hurry up, though, before this guy puts them all away.

(And I don't think this girl will eat any, but darn she's cute in her strawberry outfit.)