Our Very Own Strawberry Fest!

Yesterday we drove up to Marburger Orchard to pick strawberries. I knew Colin would love it since he 1) likes being outside, 2) loves getting dirty, and 3) is a strawberry monster, eating a pint/week on his own. Here's a picture of the two of us - you can tell how much the wind is blowing my hair, so that helped with the Texas heat!
The Rowells went with us. Here's Zach:
And Seth:
And Leah:
We had the fields mostly to ourselves, which was nice. The big boys kept pointing out berries to Colin as though he were not finding enough on his own!
He'd see the ripe ones and get so excited, rushing over to squish and shove it, stem and all, into his mouth. By lunchtime he was covered from head to toe in strawberry goo and dirt - it's good to be a boy!
Um, yuck.
Fortunately, having been a boy mom for a while, I had brought the necessary towels and water to clean him up! After lunch, Leah and the boys went home and Colin and I decided we needed more berries and stayed a bit longer.

Colin discovered a wheeled seat that he found was perfect for pushing up and down the rows (chasing me). I made him go back and forth until he was exhausted (either child abuse or just a way to save my sanity and force him nap once in a while...which worked because he did today!).
Rows and rows of berries!
And peach trees, where if not damaged too much by the recent weird freezes and hailstorms, we will hopefully pick peaches later this summer!
Yum, we ended up with between six and seven pounds of strawberries.
First we made pie for supper dessert last night (didn't even get a picture before we'd snarffed down half of it!).
Today we made bread and then Shawn, Lauren, Brenna, Lily, and Natalie came over and helped make jam! Yummy! I got no pictures of us doing it (I blame part of it on my totally burning my finger to bits, but that's really not fair since I had failed to take any good shots before that either). So you'll have to settle for narration and a couple pictures of the finished product (and my word for it that it was delicious).
Brenna mashed ALL the berries by herself - a big job, but she did wonderfully! We will have to do more soon before I lose her to Dayton! We had spinach, strawberry, and toasted almond salads for lunch which were also delish! Next on my list is making strawberry ice cream. Maybe tomorrow if Colin is good!