Strawberry Picking

Last Monday, for Family Home Evening, I decided that I would take the kids to pick some strawberries. Brandon was busy studying for finals at school, so I thought it would be fun to take the kids out of the house and do something. I had seen a strawberry patch close to our house that allows people to pick their own strawberries and decided that picking strawberries would be something the kids would really enjoy.

On the way to the patch, I talked about how Jesus Christ created the Earth and how one of the reasons plants were put on the Earth was for our enjoyment; one of the plants being strawberries.

After I got our bucket I told, as well as showed, the kids what strawberries were good to pick (completely red ones) and the strawberries that were not good to pick. Also, I told them that we couldn't eat our strawberries until we got home since they are dirty and we need to pay for what we pick.

The kids did a great job picking. They stayed close to me, they listened, I was so pleased about how well they did. For the most part, we ended up with mostly red strawberries with a few stray green ones. Also, there were only one or two strawberries with bite marks in them.The kids were so much fun to watch as they were picking their strawberries.Ben was very serious when he was picking the strawberries. He had to carry the bucket the whole time. He was very protective of the strawberries. One time he fell while he was carrying the bucket. He was too busy cleaning up the strawberries that fell out that he didn't even take time to cry. Also, some grass got in the bucket, which he didn't think should be there, and he got the grass out really quick. Ben also would follow behind Hyrum while they were looking for strawberries. Hyrum would look at a strawberry and decide it isn't ready to be picked yet and soon after Ben would come up behind him and grab the same strawberry and jabber to himself and put the strawberry back. It was too funny.

Emmy would pick any and every strawberry she saw. I think she was so excited to be picking the strawberries. Check out all the band aids on her legs in the picture below. I think she put five on that day in a matter of minutes.

Hyrum was so cute picking for strawberries. He would make sure that the strawberries didn't have any white on them before he picked them. He wanted to make sure the strawberries were all red. If a strawberry had a tiny spot of white or green it wouldn't pass the Hyrum test.After we finished picking, we had the strawberries weighed and put into a paper bag. Ben about had a nervous breakdown. I think he thought that the man was taking his strawberries away and wouldn't give them back. As you can see below, Ben was quite happy and pleased once he realized that he would get the bag full of his strawberries back.

We all had such a great time. It was such a fun activity. Also, it was nice to have such a yummy treat to go along with our dinner that night.