Strawberry Picnic & Feeding the Ducks (AKA Goose Fighting)

Fearing the looming rain storm and the possibility of being indoors all day tomorrow, I took Lauren to the park to feed the ducks and have a little picnic this afternoon. I didn't have bread, so we brought crackers to feed the ducks and strawberries for our picnic.

Lauren is off to feed the ducks

Lauren deciding that her cracker looks so good that she would eat it instead of feeding the ducks

The ducks were either scared of us or didn't like our crackers, so that was a short-lived activity. We set up our picnic and ate our afternoon snack, strawberries, crackers and cheese.

She can't get enough of those strawberries!

Pointing out all the ducks and a few geese

Lauren was doing the disco... she was actually trying to figure out how to jump and bounce on the bamboo mat. It was hysterical!

Of course she had to sit on the bench like a big girl

More duck watching

Time for more crackers- back to the picnic

Talking to the geese

**ONE OF MY SCARIEST MOMENTS WITH LAUREN SO FAR**

At this point, Lauren and I were watching the ducks when we hear some loud quacking. We turn around and see two white geese coming across the park. They were so cute. I started telling her a sweet story about the mommy goose and the daddy goose and how they went for a walk in the park together... Lauren in on my left hip and I am zooming in/out and trying to take a picture at the same time. Somehow I lose the geese in my zoomfinder and lower the camera to see them no more than 6 inches from me and Lauren honking their heads off and hissing! I screamed and jumped back. Then we ran back to our picnic which was only 30 yards away.... I didn't scare Lauren thankfully, but I was freaked out. Those didn't seem like nice geese at all! So as we were getting back to the picnic, the geese came running after us and started hissing again. I tried stomping and clapping and yelling at it to go away. Unfortunately they really didn't care what I did - They just honked and hissed and kept getting closer. I couldn't believe how scared I was...I mean, do geese have teeth? What can they do to me? Of course I wouldn't have let them near Lauren, but looking back I am not sure why I was so scared- except that Lauren was there... Mama Bear came out...So they kept getting closer and more upset- meanwhile I was getting more scared... On to Plan B: RETREAT! I held Lauren in one arm and reached out and drug our mat and food back - walking backwards and watching them the whole time. Then we scurried to the car. My adrenaline was racing...Lauren was laughing...go figure!