Life's a Bowl of Cherries

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Dsc_0551 Our cherry picking day is long gone; I love these photos and couldn't share them because I was having trouble uploading, so I just waited on the whole post. It was a beautiful Virginia summer day, not at all typical weather-wise. There was almost no humidity and it wasn't terribly hot. I think the folks at the orchard easily could have opened the groves for picking about five days eariler. We arrived to find far too many cherries molding on the trees. We were careful to instruct our little pickers (and the pbig ones too) about which cherries to pick and which to leave alone.  The toddlers were indiscriminate and Marisa and I found ourselves devoting most of our time to pitting cherries for increasingly stained one-year-old girls.It was interesting to see how the children's personalities emerged in the cherry trees. Gracie stooDsc_0565_2d timidly in front of a tree and was helpless to do much of anything unless Katie did it first and then pushed Gracie along. Katie scrambled up trees fearlessly (a little too fearlessly) and was much more interested in the challenge of the climb than filling her bag. Ever the fashionista, she was pleased with her cherry-printed shirt and more than happy to pose for picture after picture. She did her fair share of eating ,too.
Nicholas was all seriousness and filled his bag with methodical precision. KnowingDsc_0541 him, he probably counted cherries as he went.  Stephen and Sam made it a friendly competition. They climbed tree after tree and filled bags until they literally burst. The big girls wandered off to find a single tree of their own, climbed up with ease, and happily spent the entire time picking and chatting. Chatting and picking. Ever so happy to be outside on a glorious day, happy the cherries were ripe and sweet, happiest of all to have time in a tree with a kindred spirit. And the teenaged boys--they were all business. They helped Gracie in and out of trees and picked her cherries for her. And they managed to fill some bags of their own. I picked a fair number of cherries, but my favorite time of all was sitting beneath a tree, chatting with my own kindred spirit friend and snuggling a sweet, sticky wee girl who couldn't get enough of the whole experience.

Never Too Many Flowers or Children

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How can there be too many children? That is like saying there are too many flowers. Mother Teresa

It was another glorious day today! Here's a whole new bunch of pictures, courtesy of Mary Beth. One of the funniest things I've ever seen was Nicholas running across the creek to the "island," carrying Paddy's shoes high in the air. Paddy is notorious for wanting nothing to do with mud or water. He's great at suggesting all sorts of dirty, wet things for Nicky to do and then standing back and having his curiosity sated while he watches Nicky get dirty. Nicky left Paddy barefoot on the banks and took his shoes across the creek. Then, all the other kids stood on the island and taunted "Come get them!" until Paddy was forced to wade into the water.Karoline was much happier today, too, though she still remains firmly opposed to getting wet or dirty, either.