New Pets

I don't know if it's because it's only available a couple of months out of the year, but this is the third time this year (okay, this month) that we have been to King's Orchard to pick strawberries.  It's just so much fun, and you come home with tired children who sleep all afternoon, and lots of strawberries.  Only this time we took Brandon with us, and Brandon is not known for doing things halfway.  

Keep in mind, this place has several ACRES of strawberries to pick.  I don't know if Brandon and the boys thought they had to pick ALL the red ones, but we somehow ended up with 15 pounds of strawberry perfection.  (Notice how I was obviously in no way responsible for over picking.  Hey.  It's my blog.)  So fun.  Here's our day's haul:

So far I have made 2 pies and we have eaten A LOT of strawberries.  Here's what Dane and Aidan did yesterday.  Please notice from these pictures that we are the only ones there.  How is this place not packed?  It is super fun.  Maybe they should rename it "Dane and Aidan's Orchard".
This is why we cannot leave Aidan alone with strawberries for too long:
Dane was very proud, and very excited to be there with his Daddy.

A quick story:

Dane and Aidan have this "bug house".  You know, one of those little wire houses with a little door so you can keep the bugs you find.  Every mother's dream, right?  Well, Dane and Aidan have been anxiously waiting to put ladybugs in their bug house, and King's Orchard is a great place to find them.  In addition to the 15 pounds of strawberries, we also left with 6 ladybugs.  (Those were free--the strawberries were not.  We also had to PAY for the 15 pounds.)  The boys were beyond excited about their new pets.  Dane had them all named before we got out of the parking lot.  What are their names?  I'm glad you asked.  We have:  Wills, Jax, Carsy, C.D.S., Kelsey, and Pars.  Apparently some of them are British ladybugs.  As if naming ladybugs wasn't weird enough, Dane actually knows who is who.  He will look in the bug house and say things like "Kelsey is hanging upside-down" and "I can see Wills--he's on the leaf" and "I think Pars must be taking a rest time"  (It doesn't look too good for Pars.)  I had to google what ladybugs ate, and I found out that they eat aphids and moist raisins..  I am so relieved they eat raisins.  I am fresh out of aphids.