He was pretty much asleep as soon as I put the wine in the car

So I’m not the best at planning outings.  Usually they’re along the lines of ‘Hey, let’s go to the grocery!  Let’s buy some MILK!’  And usually it’s me and both kids.  But I’ve wanted to spend some time alone with Sebastian.  We haven’t been able to do too much of that since Adele came along.  I thought picking strawberries at Huber's would be a good excuse since I wanted to make some jam because somebody eats his weight in peanut butter and jelly sandwiches every week, I DON’T KNOW WHO THAT COULD BE.

It was hard to get it together since, as stated, I am the queen of not actually doing stuff.  Put that together with a small case of agoraphobia, or maybe just a fear of going to big touristy places without another adult to rely on, and there was a good chance this wouldn’t happen.  

But I rallied.  

The day started slow since ha ha! of course I’d been up all night with the littlest Thomas (I seem to say that a lot).  But we dropped Adele off with her Omi and after a stop for an iced mocha for me and a smoothie for him we drove and drove and drove and finally made it to the farm.

We're coming to save you Sheep!

Once there, after hitting the bathroom where Sebastian very loudly announced ‘That’s your penis, Mommy!’ – he meant panties – we made it to the rip-off barnyard area. 

And it was closed.

Well, not really closed so much as ‘back in five minutes or maybe 20 if we feel like it.’  Luckily Sebastian found a concrete sheep that stole his heart.  We had to save it multiple times.  

You maybe be asking yourself why I didn’t just walk on into the barnyard since there was no gate keeping us out.  (Just pretend that you were asking yourself that).  Well, that is a wonderful question.  It’s because I’m terrified of authority, terrified that as soon as I stepped food in that grassy paradise the elderly British attendant would come running yelling ‘Tickets!  WHERE ARE YOUR TICKETS?’  In reality it was a college boy who I made so nervous he put my wristband on too tight, probably because of my awesomeness, but more than likely because of my crazy hair.   

Once I pried Sebastian away from the various barnyard statues – including a grossly miss-sized chicken – I paid $8.25 for us to walk around, look at some goats and the ugliest bird I’ve ever seen, discuss how smelly said goats were, burn our feet on an inflatable slide that was so hot it caused one girl to cry, feed some fish, get attacked by a duck that I pushed back into the water (gently) (not really – it wouldn’t leave us alone), and walk around some more.  

Bird of DOOM!

After feeding the fish I was able to strongly suggest that we needed some lunch.  I’d had too much caffeine already and not enough food and my hands were shaking.  Time to eat.

Feeding fish.  Also, notice those awesome wristbands.

While we were feeding the fish we pretended to eat them, so of course that’s what we had to eat for lunch.  Someone should have been the adult and said that fried food may not be the best thing to have right before you take a bumpy wagon ride to spend 45 minutes in the hot sun squatting and bending over and digging around for the end-of-the-season strawberries, and that it will probably make you want to throw up into your strawberry box but you’ll swallow it down just because you don’t want to be that lady who threw up onto her freshly-picked strawberries.

Sprite for maybe the second time in his life. 
I figured I'd treat him.  He was a big fan.

Somebody should have said that.

Ahem.

As usual Sebastian was friendly with everyone he saw, especially our adorable waitress who kept trying to walk away but he wouldn't stop talking and she didn't want to be rude.  He also found a little boy to play with in the strawberry patch, which I was happy about because it stopped him from yelling out ‘I’m spanking your buns, Mommy!’ as he smacked my backside over and over while it was up in the air.

It turned out that that little boy’s mom was from the small town where I grew up.  That’s weird, right?  That I’d drive an hour and a half away on a Friday afternoon to pick strawberries and see someone from home?  I think it’s weird.  And small-world like.

But this little boy was so much fun for Sebastian and they laughed and ran around and played, especially back in the store when I was paying for the berries.  Sebastian can make friends anywhere he goes.

Wagon ride to strawberry patch requires sunglasses, obviously.

Since we were so close, and even though I was exhausted and Sebastian was doing everything he could not to fall asleep where he was standing, I thought trekking to the winery was a must-do.  So I hyped up the ‘other farm!’ to Sebastian and we drove past the strawberry patch we’d just finished picking in and hit up the wine store.  Of course Sebastian found someone to talk to, a woman who thought he was the cutest thing she’d ever seen.  

Once back in the car I realized with only mild panic that I didn’t really know how to find my way back home.  Luckily, though, there were signs for the road I needed to be on, but that didn’t stop me from going the wrong direction once I got to the road.  

This was one of the first times he's faced the front in the car. 
He said it was like watching TV.

But we made it.

And now that I’ve proven to myself that I can do stuff like this, maybe I can plan more trips for Sebastian this summer.

I’m pretty sure he had a good time even though we were in the car longer than we were out of it.