Summer Swedish Strawberry Selecting

This morning, despite a million reasons why I shouldn't and only four reasons why I should, I took the kids strawberry picking.



Our harvest -- minus the ones we couldn't wait to eat.



K had been asking me about it every time we passed the sign pointing toward the longed-after fields, but the timing was never right. Well, this morning, we had to run an errand that took us by the strawberry fields on the way home. I thought this was a prime picking opportunity. We turned toward the fields, our mouths watering at the thought of the harvest we would gather. 

We chose to fill six small containers, with my thinking that each kid could fill three. Well, K ended up filling more, and AJ filled less. This was mostly because AJ and H had to share my attention, while K could pick on her own. I didn't realize AJ wanted more help until H had mostly filled one container. Then, I started pointing out good ones for him to pick as well. Once he got the hang of it, he took off, though, and he and K topped off the last two at the end. 

There were so many berries that the whole process didn't take that long, but we went home happy. I convinced H to leave the field by reminding him of the cows we parked near. I think he was more excited about the cows than the strawberries. 

I wouldn't let the kid taste the produce while we were picking, so we arrived home anxious to taste our treasures.