Thanks to my friend, Heidi, we discovered a blueberry farm near us. I have never picked blueberries before so we packed up the kids and headed over. The fields of blueberry bushes went on forever! It was a perfect day for picking, with one small exception - it is 'love bug' season here in Florida. If you have never heard of 'love bugs' I'll briefly explain; 'Love bugs' (I have no idea what their actually called) main source of food are mosquitoes so the folks over at FSU decided to start breading them here to try and reduce the number of mosquitoes in Florida. That sounds fabulous, but the problem is that since the bugs are not native to Florida they have no natural enemies here and they multiplied faster than expected. They breed twice a year and during those times they are everywhere! Luckily they are harmless, they remind me of lightning bugs. My point in bringing this up is they were out in full force while we were picking. This really only bothered one person in our group, Riley. We had been out of the car for maybe five minutes and I was busy strapping Madison into her front carrier when Riley started screaming his head off. I looked over and he was holding his arm up screaming at it. One 'love bug' had landed on his arm. Needless to say, he was terrified! I brushed the bug off, assured him the bugs were harmless and finished strapping Madison in. As we were walking up to get our buckets the screaming began again. Another bug had landed on him. He was now convinced that he was only safe if he was being held, so my mom picked him up and calmed him down. That lasted for about 20 minutes, then he decided only I could hold him. So my mom and I switched kids and I tried picking blueberries while holding Riley. The problem was that Riley kept trying to climb up me, like the higher he was the safer he was. All he wanted to do was get back in the car! I was about ready to take him when Tyler had to go to the bathroom. I took both boys and as we were walking I noticed there wasn't a single 'love bug' in sight. I pointed this out to Riley and he actually let me put him down while Tyler was in the bathroom. Then he walked back to where we had been picking, chatting to Tyler the whole way about the bugs being gone. Magically he was cured of his fear and started picking blueberries with me. It turned out to be a fun day for everyone. And the blueberries were delicious!!! We left with 6 pounds worth! I can't wait to go back next year!
Tyler and his friend, Savannah.
I think Tyler easily had the most fun! He didn't want to leave!
I really didn't think this was going to happen!
He ate more than he put in the bucket!
Madison helped my mom.
He was so proud of how many blueberries he picked!
