Strawberry Pick'n

Today was a day we've been talking about for a couple of weeks now - strawberry pick'n! Caroline loves to eat strawberries so I was excited about taking her to see how they grow and let her pick her own. (yes, she went last year, but didn't really do anything and certainly doesn't remember!)

She's showing me the strawberry on her shirt! Can you tell she's excited?

Once we got there, we got our bucket and I showed her how to look for the red berries under the leaves and instructed her only to pick those. She did great! Amazingly she didn't eat any of the berries while in the field (thankfully so, they were DIRTY and had obviously been sprayed with something...) Caroline sure did eat her fill when she woke up from her nap this afternoon and there clean strawberries waiting for her!

Where to begin?Found a red one!

Checking out all her berriesShowing me a nice big red one she pickedBibi and Caroline

Another reason I was excited about going to get some fresh strawberries is to use them for our morning smoothies. Jonathan instigated a morning smoothie routine, which Caroline has also come to love. She's so cute when she wakes up in the morning and says, "Momma, moots-ee, moots-ee!"

For anyone who's intersted in how we make our smoothies, basically it's whatever we have on hand, but definitely includes the following:

Frozen or fresh fruit: strawberries, peaches, grapes, pineapple, mango, melons, blueberries
Banana
Plain yogurt, fat-free or low-fat

Juice: orange or apple
Spinach
Crushed ice

Splash of milk, if needed
So yummy!
note: Please don't be scared to add spinach to your favorite smoothie. You can't even taste it and it's full of wonderful vitamins and a great way to get a veggie in first thing in the morning. If you're just starting to add spinach, just do a little then work your way up to more.