Blueberry Picking!

Blue skies and a summer breeze...what a perfect day for blueberry picking! Yesterday the girls and I met up with my mother in law, my sister in law and three of my nieces for a fun day at Butler's Orchard. Blueberry picking is always extra exciting because you get to have a tractor ride to the field. We were in for an extra thrill this time because the driver started us off in such a jerky fashion that we almost fell on the floor! In fact, one poor little guy did end up on the floor and he wasn't too happy about it. When picking blueberries with seven little girls, how can it be anything else but a great time? Usually, these girls pair off by age, but today they tried something different. Girly tended to my baby niece, picking her up for her to pick berries. Bug paired up with my five year old niece, and together these two giggled and ate more berries then they put in their bucket. Peanut hung out with the eldest, and those two were a perfect pair because their competitive spirits took over and they searched for the biggest blueberry. It was kind of nice for things to be so different, and I was more interested in watching them all interact with each other than in picking berries. The teeny one discovered a love of blueberries and I couldn't break off little pieces fast enough, as soon as she saw one she would start grunting! I don't blame her, these are the only blueberries that I will eat. Something about a warm, juicy berry just makes it so much yummier!

For an even better time, Butler's had their slides open. Peanut convinced me to go down the big slide with her so I had to put my brave mommy face on. You know, the one I wear when I am trying to pretend like I am having a great time but inside I probably have more butterflies than she does! Hey, you should have seen this slide! It is pretty steep AND you have to go through a bumpy tunnel. At one point on the way down I started feeling out of control and began to wonder if I was going to even be able to stop, but luckily Butler's designed the slide just right and we landed at the bottom safe and sound. Phew, it wasn't too bad, we even went down again!

After we got home we decided to try out a new recipe and make blueberry crumb muffins. It required a trip to the grocery store and we tweaked the recipe a little to make a batch of gluten free ones for Girly. All the work of making muffins from scratch and the girls ended up not even liking them:( Too many blueberries they said, little stinkers! Oh well, Mac liked them and the dog LOVED them, so much so he had to jump up and knock them off the counter to eat them!