Cherry Picking

As soon as spring sprung, Jake and Alyssa began obsessing about picking strawberries. This was going to be their first time, and they were excited. I personally had grand visions of making strawberry jam, strawberry pie, strawberry smoothies, strawberry lemonade, strawberry syrup, strawberry bread . . . strawberry strawberry strawberry! 

This past Thursday, I loaded up the kids in the van and headed to Westview Orchards with my mom. (We go to Westview every fall to pick apples. It's such a fun place with tons of things to do.) There was almost no one there since it was a weekday around noon. Great! And all the people who were there were heading out to pick cherries. Even better! Until we found out that the strawberry season ended two days prior. Oops. I was disappointed for sure. I mean, what was I going to do with cherries??? Cherry jam? Cherry lemonade? Cherry bread? I don't even like cooked cherries. The kids though, were just excited to pick anything. So, cherry picking it was. 

We got a quick ride on a golf cart out to the (orchard? grove? Anyone know where cherries grow?) trees. The kids ran around in excitement. They eagerly grabbed the fruit. I'm not sure where more cherries ended up - their baskets or their mouths. (Though I have to admit, I ate my fair share too! Fresh cherries are yummy. It's the cooked ones I can't stand.) It was so cute watching them reeeeaach way up high, trying to pick the very best ones.

When Jake found a tree that was full of ripened, juicy cherries, he said, "I hit the jackpot!!!" Not quite sure where he heard that terminology, but it was cute.

There were a few ladders set up throughout the orchard. All three kids were immediately drawn to them. Jake has no fear. He climbed up ladder after ladder in order to get the best and highest cherries. Alyssa though, is my apprehensive one. She begged to climb up, but clung to the ladder once she did. She certainly would not go to the top. Zac is my other fearless boy. He ran right to a ladder and climbed up no problem. He didn't need any help from me. He climbed all the way to the last rung and reached as far as he could. If he could see the cherry, he reached for the cherry.

After we picked about 8 pounds (and ate another 4), we headed to the petting zoo. Zac loooves animals, so this was a big hit with him. They fed the animals ice cream cones filled with feed. It was so cute! Every time they fed a goat straight from their hands, they would drop all the food and giggle because "It tickles!"

Jake even made funny faces at the goats. It made me laugh, but the goats were not impressed. "Hey, kid. Either give me more food or get out of the way so someone else can." I'm sure I heard one say that.

And of course, what kind of trip would it be, if we didn't spend time at the playground??

What's the best way to end a hot day outside???

Ice cream!!!

While we didn't get my beloved strawberries, and we ended up with 4 pounds of cherries instead, we had a fantastic day. I love seeing the joy on their faces, hearing their laughs, and spending quality time with my precious gifts from God. Strawberries will go out of season; cherries will spoil; but these memories will never fade away.

While picking the cherries, Jake proclaimed, "This is the best day ever!" And that can never be taken away.

Off to the Apple Orchard

A tradition has started the past few years with our family to go apple picking at the orchard. This is something that we begin to look forward to right after we finish it. It is one of those things that has to happen at a certain time with certain weather or it just isn't right. The apple season has to be at the right point to get the apples we want for eating and baking. The fall season has to be at the right point so that we are able to wear sweaters. T-shirts just are not right for fall apple picking pictures, just doesn't look right. As we began to plan our trip to the orchard for this past weekend the apple season was right for the types of apples we wanted, but we began to worry about the weather as Thursday got into the upper eighties. We ended up with sixty degrees a ton of wind and nearly coat and hat weather. We adorned ourselves in sweaters and sweatshirts and made way for Westview Apple Orchard in Romeo, MI.

When we left the house the sun was beginning to shine and a beautiful day was growing for apple picking. By the time we made it to the orchard the clouds had returned and the wind was kicking up, but still it was a good day to pick apples. We paid for our apples received two half bushel bags and hopped on the wagon to go apple picking.

Jake and Alyssa both look forward to eating apples as we pick, so much so that Alyssa ate three apples while were picking and didn't have room for a donut from the cidermill later. Jake started a couple and made it half way through them before dropping them while trying to pick others. The big discovery early on was a dead frog in the walkway that led Alyssa to beg Erika to save her and carry her, not sure why she didn't turn to her Daddy though. I don't think Alyssa pulled too many apples down that she didn't eat. Jake had a ton of fun climbing up the middle of the trees to see how high of an apple he could pull. Poor Zac didn't pull any, although he did get his own little apple that he nibbled on a good majority of the time. All in all we had the expected good time picking apples which we followed up with cider and donuts.

The kids wanted so bad to go and play on the playground that the orchard had in there "Family Fun" area, the problem came with the $32 it was going to cost for us to get in there. So in order to lesson the heartache of not playing there we stopped at Burger King for an early dinner and let them play there. They completely forgot about the playground at the orchard and had a blast playing where they could. Now we just have to do something with fifty pounds of apples. I have a feeling we will have no problems.