Summer Fun List Update

Posted on July 27, 2013July 26, 2013 by Amy

First of all, sorry about yesterday. Laundry and weeds and appliances? Yeah. Sorry.

I’ll do better today.

Some people have been asking me about our progress on our Summer Fun List.

Out of 51 things (the original list had 50, but I added “Iowa State Fair” to it when some travel plans changed), we have completed 28.

I just counted them up tonight and am a little surprised we haven’t done more.

But we’ve been having a heck of a great time.

Last night we went to the local old-fashioned drive-in restaurant for our family date night. We were going to have a picnic in the back of my truck, but there was a lot of loud and smelly construction going on right next to the restaurant. Hubby and I both thought that we could have handled the noise, but the diesel fumes were too much. So we went to a different place, with the plan to go back for our picnic either after the construction is finished or on a Saturday when the workers aren’t there.

Tonight our friends are coming over for a cookout and movie night. We’re having s’mores, and we’ll try to catch fireflies (second attempt). That’s three more things to check off in a few hours.

^Dancing/chasing when we went to an outdoor concert.

I have a date with Super Friend to take the kids to the (regular) zoo this next week. I think we’ll head to the Dirty Weird Zoo in the next two weeks too, probably when Daddy starts working nights again (we’re starting Z is for Zoo in school).

^Showing off some of the treasures we received after completing our library’s Summer Reading Program.

We have made lemonade and ice cream and I have some nice ripe bananas ready to blend into a popsicle mixture.

There are a few things we /can’t/won’t do until we go to the Farm/Iowa in a few weeks. We’ll hit the Iowa State Fair then of course, and while we’re there hopefully go to a cool butterfly garden they have. We’ll (they’ll) probably also sleep in a tent (or try to) and make sandcastles at the Farm.

I think we’ll get everything done, except maybe getting ice cream from an ice cream truck. I haven’t seen an ice cream truck on our street yet this year.

The best thing is that Miss has asked me if we can have a Winter Fun List too. We decided to have a Fall/Winter list, which already includes: Have a snowball fight, Make a snowman, Go deer hunting, and lots of crafts, all at Miss’s request.

For fun reference, with about one month to go, we have completed:

Pick Strawberries

Summer Reading Program

Find Outdoor Treasures and Use them to Make Art Project

Plant a Garden

Make Old-Fashioned Lemonade

Go to an Outdoor Concert

Go to the Park

Watch Fireworks

Make Firework Art

Go For a Boat Ride

Make Ice Cream

Do an Outdoor Scavenger Hunt

Read Books Outside

Water Play

Run Through a Sprinkler

Put the Sprinkler Under the Trampoline (this was a favorite!)

Picnic Lunch in the Yard

Catch Tadpoles

Go Fishing

Play Hopscotch

Go to a Splash Pad

Swim in a Lake or Pond

Visit a Horse Farm and Ride a Horse (these ended up being two separate outings)

Go On a Treasure Hunt Outside

Grow Caterpillars into Butterflies

Pick Wildflowers

Go to the Beach

Hunt for Bugs

23 to go!

Check It Off

Posted on June 30, 2013June 30, 2013 by Amy

When I wrote about our Summer List a few weeks ago, I mentioned that one of our to-do items was to visit a horse farm and ride horses. We were able to do part of that when we went to a horse farm with my Mother-in-law.

The girls had a great time seeing these beautiful horses.

But, Percherons are so huge, they aren’t really for riding.

The closest we could come to riding these big guys was to get a wagon ride.

The girls really enjoyed that trip.

But I still really wanted them to have a chance to ride horses.

Today we went on an outing with that goal in mind.

Near my my parents’ house is a wrangler camp where there is a riding stable. They have “pony rides” for little ones, and when my mom called this morning she was told that they were doing rides “all day every day.”

So we hurried and got ready. Which of course didn’t occur very quickly when getting three kids and myself dressed and sun screened, but we managed to hit the road a little after 11am. We arrived to the stable at about 11:45, only to see a sign on the door saying “Sorry, we’re out. Back at 1pm.”

I called the place again and got a message saying they are closed for lunch from 12 to 1. Apparently “all day every day” didn’t mean to them what it meant to us.

My girls could see horses out the car windows and were whining about getting out and riding them.

I pulled the car around to the back of the riding place so they could get out and at least look at the horses that were tied up along the fence.

As we were checking out these pretties, I was rapidly trying to figure out what we should do next.

Option 1: Go home and call it a day, get lunch and be down for naps at a reasonable time. Hope that seeing the horses would be enough to tide them over and then come back another day, earlier in the day, to ride.

Option 2: Find somewhere to have lunch (nothing was closer than at least a 20 minute drive) and come back to ride after 1.

Naturally, we chose Option 2.

We had a fun buffet lunch at the lakeside lodge and went back for rides.

I am so glad we did.

The girls had so much fun. They were excited that they got to ride big horses, instead of ponies. They smiled and chattered happily.

Miss told the handlers about our trip to see the Percherons.

When we asked Lass what her favorite kind of horse is she said, “This one I’m on!”

I loved watching them.

We didn’t get back until about 3. Naps were short. Girls were a bit crabby this evening. But it didn’t even matter.

This was well worth it.

Check it off.

A Little Adventure

Posted on June 23, 2013June 23, 2013 by Amy

We had a little adventure today.

I wanted to plan a little outing. Something to get us out of the house so my husband could sleep.

Nothing huge, but something different, and thus an adventure.

So, after church, I smeared sunscreen on three girls, threw a picnic lunch together, and we drove to a local strawberry patch.

Lass was really into picking.

She worked hard and picked more than either Miss or me.

It was hot and muddy, but we had fun.

I have to admit though, after getting home from church, I was really tempted to skip the outing. I hadn’t mentioned it to the girls. It was getting close to lunch time and I knew we would end up having lunch late and then taking naps late. I kind of wanted to just do what was easy.

Stay home. Play in the yard. Read some books. Lunch at noon, naps at 1.

Easy.

I had a moment of thinking, “Eh, forget it.”

Then I thought about our Summer List and how excited the girls were to cross off the things we’ve done so far. Okay, I also thought about how much I like to cross things off lists.

I thought about how this might be the only good chance we have to pick strawberries since Miss has camp this week and we are going to Kentucky the following week (where strawberry picking is already done) and I didn’t know if we’d still be able to pick after that…

I thought about how much fun they would have if we had a little adventure.

I though about how sometimes it’s better to not just do the easier thing.

So, I took away my option of saying, “Eh, forget it” by telling the girls exactly what I had planned for us to do. I just blurted it out so I couldn’t take it back and I would have to follow through.

The looks on their faces and the thrill in their voices when I said we were going to pick strawberries and then go to a park for a picnic lunch… Well, I no longer wanted to wuss out, but I wouldn’t have anyway at that point.

And I’m glad I didn’t.

I’m happy I decided to smear that sunscreen and pack that lunch and take the 30 minute drive that should have been 20 minutes but we got a little lost because my GPS didn’t recognize the address of the place.

We would have had a lovely day if we had stayed home and played in the yard and colored and read books.

But instead we had a little adventure.

It was a memorable day. I’m not sure if my girls will remember it, but I surely will.

It was so worth it.

Summer “Bucket List” – 50 Summer Activities for Kids

Posted on June 11, 2013 by Amy

I am working on creating a list of activities to do with the girls this summer. Our very own Summer “Bucket List.”

The list has been a work in progress in my brain for a few weeks now, so it’s helping me to get it written down so I won’t forget what I want to do.

And I like having a list because I’m a bit compulsive about checking things off. Speaking of which, since this has been vaguely floating in my head for a few weeks, some of the items are already done. Yay me!

Here’s our Bucket List for this summer:

Go Fishing – Done (though Lass still wants to catch a whale…)

Sleep Out in a Tent
Hunt for Bugs – Done, but we need to do it again when it isn’t raining
Go to the Beach
Pick Wildflowers – Done.
Roast Marshmallows and Eat S’Mores
Watch Fireworks
Grow Caterpillars into Butterflies (Got caterpillars. They’re growing. Waiting on the butterflies.)
Go to the Zoo
Go On a Treasure Hunt Outside – Done.
Visit a Horse Farm and Ride a Horse – Done for the visit to a horse farm, but we didn’t get to ride the horses, so we’ll try again.

Swim in a Lake or Pond
Go to a Splash Pad
Run Through a Sprinkler
Put a Sprinkler Under Our Trampoline and Jump
Visit a Butterfly Garden
Play Hopscotch
Make Popsicles
Play with Water Balloons
Catch Tadpoles – Done.
Go to the “Dirty Weird Zoo” Again (and try to avoid the goat attack this time)
Picnic Lunch in the Yard
Build a Sandcastle
Water Play (and maybe a math lesson?)
Have a Dance Party in the Yard
Go For A Bike Ride
Read Books Outside
Do an Outdoor Scavenger Hunt
Make Ice Cream
Catch Fireflies
Go For a Boat Ride – Done.
Get Ice Cream from an Ice Cream Truck
Go to the Farmer’s Market
Make Unpoppable Bubbles
Go to the Park
Make Art/Pets from Rocks
Go to an Outdoor Concert
Visit a Farm
Have a Cookout and Movie Night with Friends (Super Friend and Her Family)
Find Outdoor Treasures and Use Them to Make an Art Project
Make Old-Fashioned Lemonade
Make Firework Glitter Art
Bubble Painting
Plant a Garden – Done.

Make a Fairy Garden or Maybe a Home for Our Rock Pets
Pick Strawberries, Blueberries, and/or Raspberries
Complete Summer Reading Programs (our local library, Scholastic, and Half-Price Books)
Shop Some Yard Sales
Make Huge Bubbles (maybe use the unpoppable bubble recipe from above for this?)
Do Family Date Night at Our Local Old-Fashioned Drive In Restaurant (maybe even with a picnic in the back of my Expedition like we did a few years ago)

I’m going to make a poster with these items so that the girls and I can check them off as we complete each one. Miss says she wants to “make her own list,” so we’ll see what ends up on hers.

What’s on yours?

Nature’s Classroom

Posted on May 30, 2013May 31, 2013 by Amy

We got back last night after four days at the Farm. My girls haven’t been to the Farm in quite a while. They’ve grown a lot since last summer, and they really blossomed during this trip.

There is really no better learning and play than that which happens in the great outdoors.

The weather was kind of crummy. Rainy and windy and chilly much of the time we were there. But they still got lots of time outside.

The discoveries were plentiful.

We discovered that Lass has a love for fishing.

She’s like her Daddy. She was very determined to catch fish and particular about where she wanted to drop her line. She said, “I want to catch a whale, Daddy. But not a big whale, because that might break our rod. Just a little whale.”

She didn’t catch a whale, but she caught quite a few crappies for her efforts.

After she caught the first one she moved to a new spot and said, “Now I’m gonna catch another big fish.” And she did.

That sure made her Daddy smile.

Miss did some fishing too, but she was much less into it than Lass.

She was more interested in getting dirty. These girls love a good puddle, the muddier the better.

We discovered puddles. And mud.

It’s all just one big puddle for them…

As I mentioned, there was lots of rain during our visit, which meant lots of runoff. While we were taking a Ranger ride around the Farm, we discovered this area where the water was flowing down to a drainage pipe into one of the ponds.

Flowing water + Big puddles + Rocks for jumping = A perfect country “splash pad”

I halfheartedly tried to keep them sort of dry at first, but it just wasn’t going to happen.

Miss experimented with how far she could walk into a big puddle before it got deep enough to flow over the tops of her boots. Once it did, she didn’t care, but it was funny to watch her “testing the waters.”

Both girls were dumping water out of their boots when we were done.

Lass just wanted to roll in the water and repeatedly plunked herself down on her butt in a big puddle. I did draw the line at letting her lie down in it, though she would have if I had let her.

In the photo below she’s checking to see how wet her rear end was.

It was pretty wet.

She didn’t care one bit.

The drainage pipe emptied into the pond. My Father-in-law went to the empty-out end and called back through the pipe to the girls. It took them a few minutes to figure out who or what was calling them through that pipe. They got quite a kick out of it.

Baby Sis got a taste of the fun on the Farm this trip too.

She still isn’t quite sure that she likes grass, but we’re working on that one.

More discoveries:

Just before the girls found their “splash pad,” we were looking into the pond for crawdads. My husband caught two tadpoles, in different stages of metamorphosis. One was still fully “tadpole,” with no legs at all. The other was bigger and had his two back legs developed. It was so cool for the girls (and me) to see them like that side by side.

On a treasure hunt earlier in the trip, the girls were riding around the farm in the Ranger with their Dad, grandparents, cousins, and aunts and uncles (I stayed in the house with Sis for that one). They drove near a large area of tall grass and my brother-in-law’s bird dog stopped and stared at it. My brother-in-law said, “Get it!” and the dog ran to the grass, flushing out a huge turkey! Apparently it scared the heck out of everyone in the treasure hunting party. My girls are still talking about that turkey.

They discovered the fun of boat washing.

They are always up for any opportunity to get wet and play with bubbles.

They saw so much and learned so much in just four days.

Lass found a worm on the edge of one of the ponds. She was so proud of that worm.

Also near the pond was an almost fully intact skunk skeleton. It had been totally picked over by vultures, so there was no meat left on it, just a little bit of it’s hide hanging off. My father-in-law picked it up so Lass could look at it. It had the whole skull, spine, ribs, and most of the legs still all perfectly together. Lass has been talking about that ever since. “That skunk stinked my nose!” she says.

There was a killdeer’s nest in the rocks of the driveway. They got to check out the eggs and watch the things the Mama Killdeer did to try to lure us away from her babies.

Miss wanted so badly to catch that Mama Killdeer. She ran and chased that bird endlessly. Like her sister with the fish, she was determined.

She didn’t catch her.

The girls also got to see a very small bird’s nest in a tiny lilac tree. It had two eggs in it, from different birds. My husband and mother-in-law explained to the girls (and to me) that cowbirds lay their eggs in other birds’ nests for other mama birds to take care of them. Who knew?

They got to see and examine lots of bugs, from crickets to butterflies to ticks (ew).

I love the stuff my kids learn when we go outside, especially in the country.

I spend a lot of time preparing the things I teach them in our little home preschool. I comb for books and printable activities for them to do. I search Pinterest for art projects to fit with each theme we do. I laminate, I cut, I glue and velcro and stick magnets on.

But nothing compares, nothing comes even close, to the richness of nature’s classroom for providing learning and growth for my kids. And for me.

Field Trip – Elephant and Piggie Style

Posted on April 26, 2013April 26, 2013 by Amy

A few days ago, I started our morning by telling my girls we were going to the children’s museum to see Elephant and Piggie.

I case you don’t know, Elephant (Gerald) and Piggie (who doesn’t have another name) are the characters in a series of books by Mo Willems. We were introduced to Mo Willems recently by my Super Friend who gave Baby Sis the book “The Duckling Gets a Cookie?!” and a Duckling stuffed animal for her birthday. My girls loved Pigeon and Duckling, so the Easter Bunny brought them some Elephant and Piggie books. And, wonder of wonders, they love these too!

Needless to say, they were very excited when I told them we were going to see Gerald and Piggie and hear a new book “Elephants Cannot Dance.” They immediately rounded up all their books and started reading them (they have them memorized).

I managed to tear them away from the books so we could get dressed and make the 30 minute drive to the children’s museum with time to make several parking errors, fill a parking meter with most of my quarters only to realize that it had a 30-minute limit (you’re welcome red car that pulled in after me), finally find a place to park, and get inside, with time to spare before the program started.

The girls killed time with some construction vehicles,

mirrors and squishy toys and

vegetables.

It wasn’t planned this way, but we ended up meeting Super Friend and her husband and their kids for the show. Super Friend walked in with her kids, and her kids and my kids exclaimed simultaneously, “Our friends are here!!”

There was so much anticipation before the entrance of Elephant and Piggie.

They finally came in and…

Sat down.

Apparently the costumes they were wearing didn’t provide them with much ability to see, because both of them needed to be guided to their seats by a “handler,” and they did not get up again for the duration of the story time. At least Piggie waved a few times.

The girls were so excited to see them, they didn’t care one bit. I was the only one who was disappointed I think, becasue I thought E and P were actually going to read/act out the book.

The woman who did read it did a great job though and had the kids up and dancing and spinning and having a good old time.

We got to “meet” the immobile, mute Elephant and Piggie afterwards. It was a very stimulating experience…

The girls got to do a craft, making hula skirts out of paper afterwards.

While we were crafting, Miss got wise to the fact that it wasn’t really Elephant and Piggie there at the story time when she looked hard over at Piggie next to us and saw a gap in the costume at the neck. Some guy’s hairy neck was showing, and my girl figured that one out right smartly. Later she told me, “Mom, I don’t think that was the real Gerald and Piggie we saw today. I think it was just someone dressed like them.”

Afterwards the girls had lots of time to run and play with their friends and explore some of the rest of the museum.

We don’t go there enough. It has been about 2.5 years since we were there last, so neither of them remember being there before, but they’re already asking to go back.

We used up all of our usual school time to go there, so after we got home Miss asked when we were going to do school. Surprisingly she wasn’t that thrilled when I told her that our trip to the children’s museum was our school for the day.

It was a great “field trip.”

Southern Adventures

Posted on April 11, 2013 by Amy

We are visiting my parents this week. Just take a look at all the fun:

Sunday we went to the circus.

Baby Sis stayed home with Grandma and Grandpa.

The big girls had a big time.

They both said the horses were their favorite part of the show.

Monday we went to the local nature center.

We saw turtles and snakes. Owls, vultures, a hawk, an eagle (I’ll never get over how beautiful those birds are). Whitetail deer, fallow deer, wolves, a coyote, a bobcat, a groundhog, and an opossum (this one had all four of his legs and an intact tail, unlike our friend under our deck). I think these guys were the favorite:

Each time I made my (pathetic) turkey gobble call sound they would all puff up and gobble really loudly all together. They were so loud they scared the crap out of the girls, who thought it was quite hilarious.

We’ve been reading a gazillion books and going to story time with Grandma.

We’ve been flying kites and playing outside.

We’ve had lots of running outside. I love watching them run.

Being outside (without full snow suit attire) has been nice for all of us. There’s something about feeling the wind in your hair that is good for the soul.

They’re having ice storms where we live, so we’re taking full advantage.

Sun, warmth, and Grandma and Grandpa. Doesn’t get any better than that.

A Wrestling Meet, a Birthday, Some Great-Grandparents, and Disney World

Posted on February 21, 2013 by Amy

Warning: This post has a lot of photos in it.

I can’t help it. We are on vacation, and in the past week we’ve watched a cousin compete (and win 5th place!) in his HS State Wrestling tournament, had a birthday (and multiple parties), taken a plane ride, visited a great-grandpa and then a great-grandma (in different cities), and gone to Disney World. We’ve been in Iowa and all over the state of Florida. These events and their corresponding photos should have been put into several different posts, but we’ve been adventuring, and I haven’t wanted to stop to take the time to post before now. Here’s a little glimpse of the first half of our vacation.

Last Friday we got to watch part of the Iowa High School State wrestling tournament from a box. It was great for the girls to be able to watch their cousin’s semi-final qualifying match and then play cards or read or color at a table in the box the rest of the time. They really got into the excitement of cheering for their cousin, whose match was very exciting, and the other wrestlers from his team.

On the day we went to the tournament I asked Miss at bedtime, as I do every night, what her favorite part of the day was. She said it was watching her cousin wrestle.

On Saturday we had a Snow White themed birthday party for this girl who turned four.

It was a great party, with lots of family and fun, though I kind of spoiled the opening of her one present she has been asking for for weeks. She really wanted a Merida doll and I was so excited to give it to her. I kind of get into the present opening part of a birthday for my little ones, and I love watching their little faces light up and taking pictures as they exclaim over opening just what they wanted. Well, Miss went over and started opening her gifts while I was still feeding her baby sister and tending to Lass after her cupcake. When I realized it, mid-open, I hollered, “Honey, wait! Wait! WAIT!!” She didn’t wait. I didn’t get a photo of her opening the gift. I made an annoyed face at her when she didn’t listen to me. Though I recovered myself and told her “I was sorry for yelling but had wanted to be with her and take her picture while she opened her gift,” the moment was already spoiled. This is the photo I did get of her and her much-anticipated Merida doll. I felt like a total jerk.

We regrouped though, and she has been enjoying her doll.

Note to self – a photo is never that important.

On Sunday we flew to Florida.

I got headphones for the girls and packed their backpacks with their Leap Pads and Tag readers, books, puzzle books, coloring books, and crayons in a travel soap box. Lass thought the head phones were quite cool, though she wasn’t exactly sure how (or what) to plug them in.

The flight was fairly painless. The girls did a great job.

After we landed we got in our rental minivan and drove.

First we drove two hours for a quick visit with Great-Grandpa C who lives in a veteran’s home. It was wonderful to see him, as well as my uncle and his wife, though sad to only be able to stay a short time.

Next we got back in the minivan and drove two more hours to Great- Grandma B’s house. We spent the night and got up Monday morning (Miss’s birthday) to play with all sorts of fun stuff that my Gram had gathered and put out for the girls. Golf balls, plastic food container lids, baskets, and empty egg cartons were only a few of the things she pulled out to entertain my lovies for hours.

They were in heaven with all the toys, and then she whipped up a “country breakfast” for us, complete with eggs, sausage, biscuits, gravy, and a huge bowl of cut fruit. Yum.

She had tons of balloons that she blew up for the girls to play with and for Miss’s birthday celebration.

Great-Grandma had a big to-do for Miss’s actual birthday with pizza and cake and ice cream.

Baby sis got her first taste of ice cream.

We really had a wonderful time with my Grandma and my aunt and uncle (who live next door to her). My Gram really went above and beyond for my girls, which meant so much to me.

We had a too-short visit with her before hitting the road again for two more hours to head to Disney World.

We checked into our hotel and played for a while before dinner. The “playground” at our resort was pathetic. It consisted of lots of fake rocks and coral and three small slides. The girls had fun sliding and running anyway.

Then we headed out for a birthday dinner,

and back in for an early bedtime.

Miss got this “nighttime gown” like Wendy’s from Peter Pan for her birthday. She loves it. I got it from Esty (I love Etsy) here.

The girls watched the Disney bedtime story on the TV and we went to bed early to get ready for our big day at the Magic Kingdom.

On Tuesday:

We did the Magic Kingdom.

Tea Cups (one of my favorites):

Casey Jones splash pad area, which was clearly the favorite of the girls:

As an aside, I love these dresses, and so do the girls. They’re another Etsy find. You can get them here. They were perfect for wearing to Disney, and the girls also wore them to Miss’s party on Saturday. They were cool and comfy (I saw lots of little girls in big puffy dress-up dresses who looked hot and uncomfortable), washed up very easily, and my girls can wear them any day. The girls got drenched in them twice and they dried quickly and were no worse for wear.

It’s a Small World:

A few other rides, and then it was time for lunch at Cinderella’s Royal Table.

We had a nice lunch, with excellent food and service. The girls liked seeing the princesses. Each of them said Snow White was her favorite.

My favorite was Ariel. She really tried to talked to them (though they were a bit shy), rather than just signing her autograph and posing for photos.

She was even attentive to Sis.

The girls got magic wands and made wishes during the “Wishing Ceremony.”

And we had another little birthday celebration (she always plugs her ears during the Happy Birthday song!).

Afterwards, all they really wanted to do was to go back to the splash pad. So we did that for a while, got a few souvenirs, and hit the road.

It was only 3 when we took the ferry back to the parking lot, but the girls were totally worn out.

I have to say, I was pitifully unprepared for all the little tricks of the Disney park experience. I had done a bit of Pinning, read up on a few things, and gotten a couple of apps on my phone, but was totally crushed by the huge crowds and immensity that is the Magic Kingdom. It was extremely crowded, which made it all the more overwhelming. In about five and a half hours we went on four rides (Prince Charming’s Magic Carousel, Dumbo, Mad Hatter, and Small World), played in the water, had lunch with the princesses, and picked out a few souvenirs. The rest of the time was spent wandering around trying to figure out where to get fast passes (most of them were not located right outside their rides, which seemed quite stupid to me), trying to find the rides that we wanted, or waiting in line. We got one fast pass for the Little Mermaid ride but then just missed our window to ride it while we were having lunch with the princesses. We never even made it out of Fantasyland! I learned a lot though and will be much better prepared next time.

One of the highlights of the Disney day for me was that we ran into some friends of ours from when we lived in North Carolina. We haven’t seen them in almost five years, and yet there they were, shuffling along next to us in the crush to get through the entrance to the park. I’m still marveling that we saw them at Disney World, of all places. How likely is it to “run into” someone on a busy day at the Magic Kingdom? Amazing, but we did. And it was so fun to see them, even if it was only for a few minutes as we were herded through security.

For the past two days we’ve been relaxing at my in law’s house. Lass, Sis, and I all have yucky colds (which means unfortunately we can’t visit some of my friends we had planned to see while we’re here, because one of them can’t be around sick people). We’re still enjoying the warmth and soaking in the Vitamin D. Eventually I’ll post about the rest of our adventures. Tomorrow we’re going to the beach. Saturday we’re going home.

“Vacation” isn’t relaxing anymore since having little ones. But it is so much more fun.

Animal Farm Revisited

Posted on September 9, 2012September 9, 2012 by Amy

My husband is working nights this week. Ugh. There are several reasons this is not my favorite work schedule for him, not the least of which being that I feel the need to stay out of the house all the time to let him get some sleep. Though we can and sometimes do stay home while he’s sleeping, it generally leads to me feeling anxious about the girls being loud, and then crabby because invariably they are loud, and then guilty because of course they’re loud, they’re kids, and I hate fussing at them about it. So needless to say, when Daddy works nights we try to stay out of the house as much as possible. Today I decided to make the most of it. After a little bonding time with Daddy over some archery in the morning, we hit the road to have a bit of fun out and about.

I decided to take the girls back to the dirty weird zoo we visited last summer. Why did we return to such an odd place, you may be wondering? Well, if you recall from our visit last year, though the place was kind of strange and dirty, it really was fun and Miss totally enjoyed it. So I was kind of excited to check it out again now that both of my older girls could appreciate it.

I was happy to see this guy right when we pulled in. He was one of my favorites last year and was right there to greet us when we got out of the car.

Okay, really he totally ignored us, but it was fun to see him again. The place still had the long stretch of trail that was full of trash, but happily no bison skulls in varying stages of decay this time.

And of course, they still had tons of fun animals to feed. This time the animals were all much cleaner as well. A major improvement. My favorite thing about this place is that they give each person a bag of bread when you come in and you can feed almost all of the animals there. This time we were told we could feed any of them except the new wolf and dingos. No problem there. The rest of the animals were eager to accept our offerings. In fact, we had almost the exact same problem this time with the goat assault that we had last time. As soon as we came in and got our bread those guys were all up in our business wanting to get some. Lass started screaming (just like she did last year) and Miss started trying to climb my leg (just like she did last year) and I started hip checking goats and hustling my wagon out of their range. After that, Miss was kind of hesitant to feed any of the animals and Lass wouldn’t get out of the wagon. But they still loved looking at the animals and watching me feed them.

After a while we saw this goose on the trail and Miss wanted to feed him. She took a piece of bread and tried to take it to him, but he just waddled away from her. Finally she threw the bread at him and then ran like hell when he turned around and started coming back towards her to get it yelling, “Momma, I knew I could do it!”

And that was her mantra for the rest of the morning. Once she braved the goose, she was all in.

She really wanted to feed the llama. She kept calling him “Llama Llama,” like the book character. I had to distract a few other animals (a zebra, a cow, and a pony) so she could have a clear path to feed Llama Llama. She was really proud of herself after she did it.

She wanted to make sure each of the animals in this area got a piece of bread, and she kept pointing out animals that hadn’t, “Give one to him, Momma” and “He needs some bread, he looks hungry.” She was quite concerned that we try to get some bread to the ones who had gotten boxed out by the bigger and more assertive animals. So we did.

This zebra was new and very beautiful. I don’t think I’ve ever been so close to a zebra before. I know I’d never fed a piece of bread to one before today.

I was a little bit surprised that my typically fearless middle child did not want anything to do with feeding the animals. She held one piece of bread the whole time. At the end of our walk through the zoo she kept saying she was going to give it to one of the pigs, but wouldn’t quite pull the trigger and throw it through the fence.

Then the goats came back and she quickly shoved it at me and ran back to the wagon with more screaming. Miss was not as fearful this time though, and actually walked up to a goat and petted him on her own. But due to the screaming of her sister, we headed out pretty quickly at that point.

When we got back to the car I asked each of the girls which animal was her favorite. Miss said the goats (really?). Lass said the horses (though both of them had seemed terrified of the huge horses). In spite of the goat terrorizing, we had a really great time again this year.

And, in a burst of mommy genius and planning, I made our lunches before we left this morning so when we got home we went straight from the car to a picnic in our front yard under our beautiful oak tree. The girls thought this was so cool.

We had some new elderberry jam on our sandwiches today. The girls had never had this kind before (or even heard of it) so we pretended it was “Bumbleberry” Jam, which is a favorite of the Care Bears. It was a big hit.

After lunch we just enjoyed a beautiful day outside.

Sis and I hung out while the older girls ran and chased each other back and forth.

Naturally they found the one remaining puddle from last night’s rain.

It was a great day.

Happy Fall

Posted on October 9, 2011 by Amy

Fall is my favorite season. I love the crispness of the air, the colors of the leaves and their lazy floating to the ground. I love pumpkins and apples and squash and chilly morning trips to the farmer’s market where all the season’s bounty can be found. I love open windows through which cool breezes bring the scent of burning leaves. Fall makes me feel cozy and productive. Like I want to snuggle up with my Loveys, but also to get out and go do stuff.

Last year around this time, we went to a local farm where they have pumpkins, apples, animals and a big rustic playground. We had a lot of fun, though I ended up a bit overwhelmed at the end of the day, struggling back to the truck with a newborn wrapped to me, a toddler and a big bag of apples in one arm, and pulling a wagon completely loaded with pumpkins with my free hand. Thank goodness for the kindness of a stranger who came to our rescue. Here we are in a photo from last year.

We went back to the same farm yesterday. My how things have changed. We’ve upgraded our equipment,

and the girls have grown so much. They were both charged with the task of picking out our pumpkins.

Lass took a relaxed approach to the job.

Miss, on the other hand, was all business.

She searched through all the pumpkins and even hauled the ones she chose toward the wagon.

We met up with some good friends, and had a wonderful day.

Back at home in the afternoon, we took full advantage of the glorious weather and the mass of leaves fallen from our beautiful oak tree.

The girls had a blast jumping and rolling in the leaves. Daddy got down in the leaves with the girls too, and even got buried.

And yes, I got buried too. I don’t know the last time I played in a big pile of leaves. I was a little shocked by how wonderful the leaves smelled and how the scent transported me instantly back to my childhood. I had completely forgotten that smell. It’s a fantastic smell!

Happy fall to you!