Strawberry Fields Forever

Noah explains what to look for in a strawberry.

Our favorite time of year is here: Pick You Own season at Weaver's Orchard! Strawberry picking opened on May 19th, and by golly we were there by 10 am.  We were not going to miss the prime berries of opening day.

Noah never liked strawberries as a baby, which was fine as they gave him a nasty rash. But like 99% of kids, he now loves them and could eat them at every meal if we would let him.  He was thrilled to go strawberry picking and we were excited because this would be the first year he would be old enough to really get in on the action and pick his very own berries.

Audrey is also a big fan of strawberries.  But that isn't saying much as we dare you to find a food she doesn't gobble down in milliseconds.  She has become so independent since she started walking and we knew that she would love the ability to go and chow down on as many strawberries as she liked while we picked.  She slept in the car on the way to the orchard and was ready and raring to go when we arrived.

We were very impressed with Weaver's organization.  We were the very first folks to pick our area thanks to their well run system.  Noah did a great job obeying and picking only in our assigned row.  He held his own cardboard box and was very patient and picked only red and healthy looking berries.

Yeah, we couldn't really hid the fact that she had indulged in a few before paying!
Caught her red handed!

Audrey followed Noah and proceeded to taste test the majority of the berries that Noah put in his box.  We had thought of putting her in some cute white summer outfit and luckily thought better before we committed to her clothes for the day.  She was a cute little strawberry mess.

We filled up both cartons in less than a half hour.  So we spent the rest of the morning hanging out with the chickens, goats and duck at the petting zoo and playground area.  We are eagerly counting down the days until blueberry, peach and apple seasons arrive!

On the agenda for tonight:  Chocolate covered strawberry dipping (and eating) sessions with the kids!

Daddy and Noah showcasing their prime picks.

Our loot of the day!

The Big 3-0!

Dave is officially old now--just like me!

We kicked off our celebration on Friday night when Dave got home from work. We knew Saturday (the big day!)  would be long and tiresome and we wanted Dave to be rested when he had his birthday treat.  We had made comments about Noah and I making him a cake, but we actually hired our friend Faith to make his favorite cupcakes!

(Note-  Dave is NOT a sweet person. I mean, personality wise he is, but he just doesn't dig a lot of desserts.  I kept trying to get him to try Faith's cupcakes after our MOPS fundraiser and he wasn't interested regardless of how many times I told him how amazing this cake and frosting was.   Then when we got them for Noah and Audrey's birthday party, he started wolfing down 3 or 4 a day!  Yeah, he is hooked!)

On Saturday morning, Noah decided to give Dave a very special start to the day by sleeping in until 9:30!  Then we were off to Dorney Park.  We had wanted to go there for a long time, as Noah has a real love for Charlie Brown and the Peanuts Gang. In short, this place was Noah's Disney world!  He was in heaven.  He hugged just about everything Snoopy related.  We rode the rides, we saw the show and stalked the characters.

Even Audrey was a trooper.  They had this amazing Family Care Center, so diaper changes, nursing, even milk storage was super easy.  They did a really great job.

We pretty much stayed in Planet Snoopy and did the same 7 or so rides, some with all four of us.

At the end of the day, Dave felt young at heart.  He also felt old in the knees, back, etc.

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Just like Noah's birthday, we had to do the candles about 10 times!

This was such a sweet moment.  Noah truly loves Snoopy!

Every Snoopy we saw got a hug!

Ad did Peppermint Patty, Charlie, Linus, Lucy.  Franklin only got a high-five, though.

Noah loved the truck ride, too!

Noah claims his souvenir.

Audrey approves of Noah's choice. 

Noah made a new friend on the helicopters.  Not so sure at first.

Didn't take him long to warm up to the older woman!

Noah loved the waterfall.  And it was nice and cool, so we were happy to oblige.

Audrey wants Snoopy's cookie.  Go figure!

Even the benches were Snoopy-ized.

He loved riding the helicopters.

Audrey held up beautifully!  At 8:30 pm we called it a night, but both kids could have gone longer!

51%

Dave and I are never quite sure when to do the big announcement that our kids are walking!  Audrey started taking her first solo steps right around 11.5 months, and at 12ish months, she was doing a dozen or so steps solo.  But her first instinct was to crawl.  She would only walk from the table to the chair or if she was being bribed with food.She could walk, but she was still primarily a crawler.

In the past few days, she has reached the magical 51%!

She is walking more than crawling now! She is walking the length of the house and tries to walk before she will crawl anywhere. Her first instinct is to walk.  She has also figured out that it is much easier to carry things from point A to point B walking, rather than crawling.

In short, we are all in agreement that AUDREY IS A WALKER :-)

Now I must figure out how to post amazingly cute video of her toddling about!