Slim Pickings

Today was one of those very bad horrible no good days.  We went berry picking. Sounds like a great activity with the kids, right?  After all, these here parts contain the heartland of America's produce, including yummy delicious strawberries.  We eat our fair share, let me tell you. I had organized this activity for our church play group... everyone was excited for the outing.  Little did I know it was doomed (for us anyway) from the beginning.

We had to scramble this morning to meet at the church by 9:30.  My daughters are by far the slowest eaters on the planet.  Caroline took her usual three bites of oatmeal and then announced she was done and wanted down.  But I wasn't having it today.  I knew if I let her down  as soon as we got in the car she would squeal she was hungry and demand chocolate chips.  So, I insisted she have five more bites.  After 30 minutes of crying and protesting she finally relented (only after, of course, I had added a little more agave and cinnamon to her bowl).  We were finally on our way... met everyone at the church and then jumped on Highway 1 towards Watsonville, when Caroline proceeded to vomit up her breakfast.  Doh! That's what I get.  It was all over her, in her hair, down her chest, all over her clothes and the car seat. Who knew eight bites could be so much? So, I took a detour home, gave her a bath, changed clothes, cleaned out the car seat, and was back on the highway.  When we finally arrived about 11:30, most of the moms from the ward were finished picking and were on their way out.  Em saw her beloved friend Elsa long enough just to get mad when she was gone, "Where'd Elsa go?!  I want to find Elsa!" 

Here are the only pics I took from our ill-fated adventure:

If you can't tell from these pics, C did most of the picking while Em did most of the eating

Hard at work

Yeah, she pretty much just stood around and waited for us to drop berries in her bucket.  

After picking for a little while, we headed over to the barn where they sell renowned fruit pies and pastries.  We stood in line for a long time... me anticipating a slice of raspberry pie and Em a bowl of ice cream.  I saw they offered ice cream with strawberries on top...  I thought this would be absolute paradise for Em since it was the glorious fusion of her two favorite foods.  Apparently, I do NOT know my daughter.  You see, there can be absolutely NO TOUCHING of berries and ice cream.  Her world evaporated in an instant when she saw that her ice cream was contaminated with strawberries.  It was meltdown time.  I'll spare you the details, but it was ugly.  VERY ugly.  But I happily sat and ate my pie and Caroline happily ate my ice cream, but Em's poor bowl of ice cream and strawberries ended up in the trash :(

Impure ice cream, sadly destined for the garbage can

Oh, and in case you're wondering why she couldn't just eat my ice cream that came with the pie, well, it had a few raspberry swirls in it... the very idea!


So, I think I'm done with ambitious outings with my girls for awhile now.  I'm not taking them anywhere unless their dad comes too!  Thankfully, he literally just finished his last final, so I must go now so we can celebrate!  Ice cream topped with strawberries perhaps?