50 shades of blue(berries)

Last week, a friend sent out a message on Facebook to see if anyone was interested in going blueberry picking. Blueberry picking is one of those things that I had heard about and always thought would be fun to do with the girls. But, I'd just never gotten around to doing it. Apple picking in the fall is another one of those activities. A couple months ago I thought, "oh, we never made it apple picking last fall, we will definitely have to do it this fall." Then, I realized that this fall Molly will be in kindergarten. Which means, we'll have to become weekend people.

(Weekend people: People who do fun activities with their kids on the weekends. While I have no problem with weekend people, one of the joys of staying home is that you can do fun stuff during the week and avoid the massive crowds. If you know me, you know I do not enjoy crowds.)

So, I had a moment of panic and realized that my time with little ones is slipping away, and they're going to be in college before I know it, and then I'll be all alone ... then the sobbing started. Ok, so I may have gotten a little carried away, but you can see where I was coming from, right?

Anyway, with all that back story, you will, I'm sure, not be shocked to hear that I immediately said "yes" to blueberry picking. We planned to meet at 9am at a place called The Berry Patch, which is probably 30-40 minutes away. I needed caffeine first, though, so I had to stop at Sonic, and therefore were a little late.

Because we'd never been before, I didn't know the first thing about it. But, they give you a bucket, a plastic bag, and a twine to wrap around your waist. You can tie your bucket onto the twine and then can have two hands free for picking. Molly was listening intently to the woman explaining the process to us. She told us that they were picking in fields #11 and #12, and that we should only pick the blue blueberries, because the green and purple ones would not ripen and you would be left with sour, gross berries.

So, we made our way back to the appropriate fields (they plant the blueberries so they ripen at different times and can lengthen the picking season). There, we found Sarah and her kids, Owen and Tessa. They had already been there for a while, so Sarah already had quite the full bucket. We got started picking.

Charlotte was excited by the idea of blueberry picking.

A couple chic bowlers

When you hear "bowling," your first thought is all about the fashion, right? 


A couple weeks ago, a friend asked if we wanted to try out this deal in one of the KC Parenting Magazines. It was for kids' bowling. Every Thursday morning, at the Olathe Mission Bowl, they offer kids' bowling for $3 a kid, plus a small drink. I said, sure. Why not? Always fun to try out new things with the girls.

So, we piled into the car on Thursday morning and headed over. I was a little worried that the place would be crazy busy and that it would be overwhelming. I needn't have worried about that. We were meeting two other moms with their kids. (Six kids total, but two are babies, so they didn't bowl.) When we pulled into the parking lot, I started to worry that we had the time or day wrong. There were no other cars in the parking lot. The sign said open, though, so we unbuckled all the kids and trudged in. Inside, it was typical old-bowling-alley style. But, nary a sign of any other bowlers. We made sure the deal was still on, and went ahead.

For $6 and change, we got two games of bowling, plus shoe rental and a drink for each of the kids. (Really, the drink didn't do us any good since neither of my kids drinks soda, but I guess it's the thought that counts?).  The girls were so excited for this. I had been telling them about it since the day before and they couldn't wait to go bowling. After we checked in, the lady at the counter handed them bowling shoes. Bowling shoes? For kids? How adorable is that? Both Molly and Charlotte couldn't wait to put on their new shoes. It was just like shoe shopping, which, of course, my girls love.

Charlotte was thrilled to get to wear bowling shoes.

We got all ready and headed over to our lanes. Because there wasn't a soul there other than us, we got two lanes for the four kids to share. Molly was up first, and I showed her the basic gist of bowling. Thank god there were bumpers, otherwise the balls would never have toppled a single pin. Her form left a little to be desired. Ok, a lot. She essentially carried the ball with both hands, set it down and tapped it forward with her fingers. It was not a fast operation. I think sometimes she even forgot that she had rolled the ball by the time it got down to the pins.

Look at that technique.

Call the PBA right now!