Strawberry picking perfection

You know that feeling you get when all plans fall perfectly into place? I was practically giddy with that feeling on Saturday.

We went to bed bummed about the forecast of rain all day, but we woke up to the sun shining bright and the birds chirping and 0% chance of rain until the evening. Perfect weather for strawberry picking and fun at a local farm. 



We rearranged our plans and like magic, we were able to have our cake and eat it, too. No more having to choose between seeing Adam's mom on Mother's Day or going strawberry picking. And I could still have time to go shopping with my mom and have a cookout at our house for her birthday/Mother's Day celebration.


Photo credit: Lissa Smith, who we were fortunate enough to run into on our way out. She was kind enough to take a couple of family pictures with my camera.


I've only ever been strawberry picking once. My mom and I took the boys when Logan was Lorelai's age (I think?!) and we just haven't made time to do it again. I'm pretty sure the boys don't even remember ever going. But it was the perfect family outing--especially considering how much all of my kids LOVE strawberries.



But yeah. That feeling. The sun was shining and there was a nice breeze in the air. The kids were excited, the hubby was smiling, I was getting some good photos, and my belly was full from a special breakfast. Pure, simple, perfection.



Every time Logan would excitedly point out another perfect strawberry, my heart would gush about how perfect this day was.



When Aidan would run ahead to see how many more ripe berries there were, I relished the thought of all the memories we were making.



When Adam offered to take the camera to capture me and some moments of our day, I could tell how much fun he was having, too.


Nice artistic shot of the strawberry, honey! Great minds think alike (mine is at the top of this post).



And when Lorelai got sick of the camera in her face and got tired of picking berries (as soon as she noticed the bounce house in the background, the berries lost their appeal), I didn't get bummed. I just picked her up and held her close, enjoying just being there with her in that perfect moment on that perfect day.



And then we laughed when she stuck a berry down my shirt and called it a strawberry nipple. :)



Sometimes I worry we don't do enough with the kids. I admit we like to stay close to home on the weekends because it's really the only time Adam and I get time to sit around, relax and do all the mundane things we don't have time for during the work week. But lately I've been a lot more motivated to go out and do stuff. And let me tell you--it's been pretty great. Not to say that we can't (and don't) have perfect weekends where nothing much happens. There's most definitely still a place for those in my life as a busy full-time working mom of three. But watching the joy on their faces during these out of the ordinary experiences is kind of intoxicating for me as a mom. The best thing is that this wasn't even something big like Disney. Heck, even the pet store was one of these out of the ordinary experiences. So simple and easy.



There was a lot of enjoying the little things this weekend, and it was (have I said it enough?) perfect.


Photo credit: Lissa Smith


PS: We had a lot more fun at the farm, but due to an absurd number of pictures I took, I'm going to spread them out over several posts.