So, in the same fashion that I begin many of my posts, please be warned that this post contains a LOT of pictures. I'm sorry, I'm a hopeless cause. Hopeless, hopeless. I take a lot of pictures, what can I say??? And it used to be easy to weed through them and pick out the few that made the cut, but it's not the case anymore. OK, apology over now. On with this post!
So, April in our neck of the woods is a fabulous time of year. The weather if phenomenal, it's my birthday month :), and strawberries are in season. And I've mentioned before that Louisiana strawberries have quickly become one of my favorite things about this state. They are delicious. So the 2nd week in April, Garrett picked up a flat of berries on his way home from the Father & Son campout and I made jam, milkshakes, smoothies, ate them by the bowl full, etc. So then I figured that couldn't be all the strawberries we had for the year. So...I decided to find a place to go and pick them ourselves. I was pretty sure the boys would LOVE it.
So, on April 22 we headed northwest about an hour towards Ponchatoula and landed at Landry Poche strawberry farm. It was down a heavily wooded country road in the most picturesque spot I could have imagined. Pull up the lane to a house and the farm resides behind it. It was like out of a magazine. We pulled up and had the place to ourselves. The lady gave us our bucket and a few instructions and let us loose, so here are a
few pictures of our time there (OK, and there are actually a
few more for a post after this. Seriously, I have a problem).
They were honestly the ripest, reddest, yummiest, bestest strawberries EVER. And you could eat them fresh out of the field, and we found that nothing could beat the taste of a warm juicy ripe strawberry in the field. YUM!!!
Sam found one of those 'funny' looking strawberries!
How's that for size, eh?
The prize pick!
The bucket contains a few evidences of Sam's picks...can you tell which ones they are??? :)
And we had one happy camper here, that's for sure. This boy LOVES strawberries, I mean loves them. I could not possibly put it into words. I think he ate his weight in strawberries in 2 days' time. We headed home with two buckets in our car and lots of plans for what to do with them. Once we got them home, even Garrett agreed they were hands down the best strawberries ever! It was such a fun day! (a few more pictures coming soon and then I'll finally blog about our trip!)
Here we have evidence--convincing evidence that this was quite possibly the best day ever AND that everything tastes better when eaten with your eyes closed, slowly to savor every last bit....mmmmmm!
And really, all I wanted was a picture with Tyler and his bucket, but every time I looked up, he was eating yet another strawberry. He is hopelessly in love with them. And really, these are the last of the pictures, but I just couldn't resist. Now, moving on... :)
It was a gorgeous spring evening--one that was just oh-so-perfect. The type you wish could last forever. We were out cooking some dinner on the grill. While we waited, I decided to get the sidewalk chalk and draw a hopscotch game. 
You know, one with 10 squares...
Tyler: "well, I think EXTREME hopscotch would have like 20 squares. And I really like extreme hopscotch better anyways." (not that he'd ever played it, but, you know...)
And Sam's help was oh so helpful too. (square #12 above)
And now we're working on #13 above, #14 below...
And with a final nod of approval, we were ready for extreme hopscotch to get underway (with only 14 squares, instead of 20, but hey if you make the rules, you can certainly change them, right?)
And believe me, extreme hopscotch is way more exciting than the regular old 10-square standby. Can't knock it 'til ya try it.
And I'm sure it comes as no surprise, since we are a rather extreme family after all. You know us...
And just when you think things can't get any more extreme, just wait until your little brother throws a golf club at you just when you're on square #12. Extreme. Definitely extreme. And he (both Tyler & the alleged little brother who threw the golf club to begin with) lived to tell about it, we're so relieved! Phew.
Go on now. Go try it for yourselves. You know you want to!!
We figured it was time these boys started pulling their weight around here a little bit, so we put 'em to work (back in March...still playing catch up here)! And we learned, of course, that work can actually be kind of fun. :)
When there are hoses to spray with,
When there's water to splash in,
When you can spray Daddy...
and Tyler...
and eventually spray the pick-up and shine it up real nice!
Now we realize we've really got to put these kids to work more often!
But first, I must say, I really have no words for this one. None. I just don't know anymore. :)
