Stolen

When we first bought the strawberry plants, they were in little pots. I watered them every morning, brought them outside to get sunlight and brought them back inside each evening.

Then, I finally replanted them into a small planter and I agreed to leave the plants outside from then on. Andrew had put up with the plants sitting on our kitchen counter each night and it was clear he didn't like it.

The next morning, we found that some animal had eaten the three "biggest" strawberries. They were tiny. They barely looked like a strawberry and they were still green! I can't believe something would eat them, but they did.

I was so upset. I decided I had to bring the entire planter in every night again.

And so I did.

Each morning before the rush of getting the boys ready for school, I brought the planter out and watered each of the plants. Every evening, before dinner, we would bring the planters back in.

For the past two weeks, our strawberries were safe. They were untouched and we watched patiently as our one strawberry (the rest are just barely coming out of their flowers right now) grew bigger and bigger.

This week, it started to ripen.

First, it turned pink at the bottom.

By yesterday, it was half red.

This morning, when I brought the plants out, I told Nathan who has been waiting so anxiously this week, that he would be able to pick the strawberry either tonight or tomorrow.

He was so excited; he's been looking forward to this since the last strawberries were stolen.

So imagine just how devastated we both were when Andrew called us down for dinner and told us that something had eaten our beautiful strawberry.

I was irate. I mean, are you kidding me?!

Just like that, it was gone.

And all we can do now is wait for the next strawberries to grow and hope that whatever it was that ate our previous four strawberries doesn't strike again.