Kentucky Family Fun

Posted on December 12, 2013December 12, 2013 by Amy

It’s that time of year again where I bring you the we’re-at-my-parents’-house-here-are-a-ton-of-photos post. This post will include all of the same elements that always make an appearance in those about Christmas with my family.

1. Silliness with Grandma (and playing with my old toys):

^^The girls decided that Barney, my huge old teddy bear, was sick, and they were doctoring him in Grandma’s bed.

2. Watching our favorite Christmas movie, Heidi:

^^Baby Sis was even enthralled by this, the best holiday movie ever.

3. Story time at the library with Grandma:

^^She could not understand why she couldn’t just go get in Grandma’s lap for a story.

4. And of course, a big holiday free-for-all with my brother’s family yesterday.

We haven’t seen my brother and his family in a long time, and it made me so happy to see my kids and his kids jump right into cousin-ly camaraderie.

It was awesome to have my whole family together. Six adults + Seven kids (two of which are toddlers) = Crazy and wonderful.

The present opening was just as chaotic as ever, and just as fun.

Everyone got pretty tired out by the festivities.

More silliness with Grandma:

After my brother and his clan left the girls got dressed in their new princess PJs, which Lass had been begging to put on from the moment she opened them.

They danced around in their new finery, with Lass breathlessly proclaiming, “I’m Snow White! I am really and truly Snow White! All my dreams have come true!”

At the end of the evening last night, we put on a movie for tired girls (and tired parents).

We have one more day at Grandma and Grandpa’s before hitting the road to go home on Saturday. We’re packing in as much quality time as we can.

Work, Eat, Play – Happy Thanksgiving

Posted on November 28, 2013 by Amy

We just had one of the best Thanksgivings ever.

It started bright and early in our kitchen this morning. We started baking pies right after breakfast. The girls helped me sort the contents of some old change jars to get pennies for weights on the crusts.

Then they sorted much of the rest of the change into their piggy banks while I made the fillings. They thought this was pretty neat. Miss even said, “This is the most funnest thing ever!”

Phase one completed:

I always want pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, and my husband’s favorite is pecan pie, so we did both. They’re not pretty. I can never seem to create an aesthetically pleasing crust, but they were delicious.

My husband also started his sausage making venture today, so for most of the rest of the morning the big girls helped him prepare the ingredients to mix with the meat. Before the weekend is over he will be making 90 pounds of pork sausage, including the following varieties: breakfast, sweet Italian, chorizo, garlic, andouille, and brats.

The girls are so excited about helping him with this.

He also has a ton of venison to grind into burger. Last night we had a date night while we trimmed it.

Wine for me. Beer for him. Raw meat and big knives.

It was romantic.

Okay. Anyway. I’m writing about today. Thanksgiving. We were all busy in the kitchen all morning, except for poor Sis. She become a little frustrated a couple of times about not being able to join the crowd in the kitchen.

But most of the time she played perfectly well by herself. She is so chill. I walked into the playroom to check on her and found her playing pretend in the castle with Prince Phillip and a baby doll.

And my favorite part of the food prep:

Breaking bread.

We made savory bread pudding instead of stuffing, so we were actually cutting it, but I like to say we were “breaking bread.”

There’s something very holiday-ish and family-ish and together-ish about that phrase.

^^ That’s a Thanksgiving photo I can’t wait to show my girls when they get older.

And the big item for the big meal? Well, we aren’t real fans of turkey. For Thanksgivings past I have made prime rib, cornish game hens, etc. I have never cooked a turkey. And last week my husband went and butchered an enormous pig for us to eat. So the only natural thing for us to have for our Thanksgiving feast is… Ham!!

Ham smoked in our Big Green Egg. For 21 hours.

This is the first time using the Big Green Egg and the first time smoking a 20+ pound ham. First time smoking anything, actually.

My hubby is giddy about his new trick. The ham turned out wonderfully.

After our meal, the best way to finish the evening was with a family dance party.

The girls loved the Peanut’s Theme Song for dancing. We played it over and over and over.

Today was a day of giving thanks.

We gathered in the kitchen and worked together. We ate together. We played together. In my mind that’s what families do.

Every day I think about how fortunate I am. Every day I thank God for my life and its joys.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Why Do I Blog? Three Reasons.

Posted on October 16, 2013 by Amy

I have been thinking about the evolution of this little blog of mine. It’s funny for me to think of how and why I got started doing this, and how and why I have continued.

Oh wait. You don’t know how I started?

Well, let me tell you all about it.

On September 11, 2009 I published my first post. Miss was about 7 months old. I was using Blogger back then. I didn’t know how to upload photos. I didn’t know what the heck to write about. But I took the plunge and started anyway.

The reason I started? Well, if you read my first post, it says that I began blogging as a way to keep family informed about what was going on with us (meaning Miss).

That was true, but it’s not the whole story. I actually started blogging because I wanted to participate in a cloth diaper swap. Ha! It makes me laugh to remember. How strange that I started this whole thing for that reason. When I first started using cloth diapers on Miss I was kind of obsessed with buying cute “fluff” (that’s cloth-diapering speak for, well, cloth diapers). I tried all different kinds. I wrote blog posts about diapers. I really wanted to participate in that swap, but the hostess wouldn’t let me without a blog. Having the participants blog about what they got was pretty much the point of the whole thing. A friend of mine, who used to blog herself, suggested that I just start up a blog, and then if I didn’t want to keep at it I could stop whenever. So, I did. Start a blog, I mean.

In September 2009 we were at the Farm for a visit. I remember messing around on the Blogger site, trying to figure out how to start. Obviously I needed a name for my blog, so I thought for a few minutes, the name popped into my head, I liked it, and off I went. I didn’t really spend much time planning the blog because I didn’t even know if I’d continue it after the diaper swap.

And yet, here I am. Why did I continue blogging? There are three main reasons.

1. As I mentioned in my first post, to share my girls with family who don’t get to see them very often. My Mom reads this blog. My Dad, my Auntie, my Mother-in-law, my aunt in Florida, my Grandma, and many other aunts and uncles and cousins too. It’s wonderful to go to a family gathering and have people comment to me about the things they know about my girls, or talk to my kids like they know them, much more than they would otherwise, I think. A few times people have said to me things like, “I follow your blog, I hope that’s not weird/creepy/stalker-ish.” To which I reply “No! That’s not weird. That’s why I write it!” We don’t live near any family members. So I love that my family and friends feel as though they know my kids pretty well even though they don’t see them often (or often enough).

2. The second reason is that I just love writing. I enjoy the process of having ideas for posts and putting them into words. It’s a creative and intellectual outlet for me. I like the way Jen at Conversion Diary puts it in this post. Reading that kind of felt like she had crawled inside my head.

3. Finally, I think about how amazing it will be for my girls to be able to read all of this some day. To see all the things that they did. The funny things they said. The people we know. The places we went.

I know that when I was young I loved looking at my baby book (such as it was) and the few photos there were of me as a baby and little girl (oh how I do appreciate digital photography). I liked hearing stories about myself as a little girl. When I became a mom I wanted to know all about how I was as a baby and little girl. I want my girls to have all of this information to enjoy. And I want to be able to remember it too.

I hope that my girls will love reading this material someday. They already enjoy looking at the photos. And so I keep taking photos, and writing, and posting.

7 Reasons I Love My Mother-In-Law

Posted on September 28, 2013September 29, 2013 by Amy

I don’t know much about raising a son. I know lots of people who have done or are doing an amazing job of it. My Mom did a pretty great job with my brother. My Auntie with my cousin. My sisters-in-law are raising terrific young men. I have many friends who are bringing up delightful little boys (you know who you are).

I think behind every good man there is, to some degree, a great mother.

So today, I want to talk about the woman who raised the most incredible, wonderful man I know. My Mother-in-law.

Here are 7 reasons I adore my Mother-in-law (because I know the following things about my husband came, at least in part, from her):

1. My husband knows how to do stuff around the house. When I lived by myself I thought I was pretty handy. No. He is handy.

2. He is honorable. I never worry that he will lie to me or do anything lacking integrity.

3. He is freaking smart.

4. He is no pushover. I can rest assured that he will (figuratively) beat down anyone who tries to mess with me or him or our children.

Actually, come to think of it, he’d literally beat someone down too if necessary. When we lived in Durham I was cleaning an old junky hoosier cabinet I had just purchased. I didn’t realize the top wasn’t connected to the bottom and it started to fall over. A vase feel off the top and shattered and I yelled his name for him to come help me so the top of the cabinet wouldn’t crash to the floor. With the glass shattering and my scream, he thought someone was breaking into the house. He pretty much jumped down our stairs, breaking his toe in the process, and was all set to throw down with a would-be intruder.

5. He knows the importance of family. We come first, no doubt.

6. He works hard. He can and will do anything he puts his mind to.

And last but certainly not least:

7. He never, ever pees on the toilet rim/seat.

I am a lucky, lucky girl.

There’s lots of stuff out there depicting mothers-in-law as meddling, judgmental, conniving, whatever. Movies and books always seem to portray the mother-in-law as a witch or an idiot or both.

But I think mothers-in-law often get a raw deal. I have a wonderful relationship with mine. Of course there are many reasons I love her, besides the way my husband turned out. She is extremely accepting and supportive of me. She is a terrific grandmother, always taking time to do special things with my girls (Lass sobs every time we leave the Farm… Every. Time.) She is generous and loving and thoughtful. And she loves my kids to the moon and back. What’s not to love?

So, thanks Baba. You are a treasure.

The Labor Day Party – Part 3 and Final

Posted on September 13, 2013August 29, 2014 by Amy

It’s Friday! Linking up with Conversion Diary.

Here is Part 3 and Final in my series on the Labor Day Party. Sorry it’s a bit belated, but I got distracted by the girls’ baptisms over the weekend and my parents’ visit this week.

Here are some random observations about the weekend, the Farm, the family, and The Party.

A perfect illustration of The Party in a Walmart shopping cart:

I can’t think of any problem that could come up during the Labor Day Party Weekend that couldn’t be fixed with hand wipes, coffee, toilet paper, and/or a fire extinguisher. Probably should have some beer in there to truly complete the picture, but someone else was in charge of buying that.

Families need to eat together.

My husband’s family is huge. And they love to eat.

My Mother- and Father-in-law are the absolute masters of feeding very large groups of people with maximum efficiency.

There are lots of good ways to do it. Weenie roast and lots of wings/fries are two that are employed every year during The Weekend.

My favorite though, is the shrimp boil.

I don’t know exactly how it works, but it involves boiling lots of corn on the cob, potatoes, hot dogs, sausages, onions, garlic, and shrimp with spice packets in huge pots.

Sometimes it includes lobster. Yum.

The tables get covered with plastic and paper and when the food is done, well, it goes on the table. Literally.

Food. On table.

What could be more fun than grabbing food off the table, eating it with your hands, squirting ketchup and ranch directly onto the paper…? No plates, no utensils, easy clean up. I love it.

Talk about family togetherness.

I love how much stuff there is to do at the Farm. The bigger kids and grown ups do lots of boating, knee-boarding, and playing volleyball. There’s tons of fun for the littles too.

When a family reunion lasts a whole weekend, there has to be plenty to do.

Or not.

Costumes make a party more fun.

The theme of The Party this year was “Jobs.”

After much deliberation, my older girls both decided to be marine biologists. Lass was going to be a zookeeper, but when she saw the wetsuit outfit I was going to order for her sister, she had to have the same one.

A cousin was also a marine biologist.

Baby Sis was a mommy.

The Band (L-R): Fast food worker, rogue accountant, blacksmith, Steve Jobs, Steve Jobs, trucker, and me, a tattoo artist.

Some of my other favorites:

The clown, complete with balloon animals for the kids

“Mechanic Man”

And, yes, The Lunchlady (complete with the full Chris Farley dance performed during the party)

One of my favorite lines of the night was overheard from my sister-in-law regarding a comment my niece had made about her dad (The Lunchlady), “This is my Daddy’s fake butt that he wears under his dress.” Nice.

Families that rock together, stay together.

Father and son:

Sisters:

Mother and son:

Brothers:

Cousins:

A special tribute sing-a-long for their Grandmother,

Her favorite song, “Lord of the Dance.”

One of my favorite parts of the night was watching my girls have fun on the dance floor.

And the dancing. Oh, the dancing.

Blister in the Sun:

The dance off:

“I ripped my pants!!”

And one of my favorite dance-floor traditions, the “Wipe Out” dance:

An incredible weekend. An incredible party. An incredible family.

Baptisms

Posted on September 9, 2013September 9, 2013 by Amy

Until a few days ago, I had never attended a baptism, Catholic or otherwise.

On Saturday, all three of my sweet girls were baptized.

I was pretty nervous beforehand.

Of course, I knew it wasn’t about me at all, but I still worried I might say or do the wrong thing. I tend to feel nervous when I’m in church that I’m going to do something stupid that completely breaks the rules and has everyone staring at me, slack-jawed with shock at my unintentional inappropriate behavior.

But it was just perfect.

It was beautiful.

When we went to our class about baptism on Thursday night, they told us that toddlers and older children could either stand or sit in the font, or kneel next to it and lean their head over the edge. The deacon said that at Sis’s age we could choose to have her in the font like her sisters or we could try to hold her and do hers like an infant baptism. I was uncertain which way to go.

I was afraid if I tried to let her stand in the font that she would sit down and her diaper would disintegrate and all that weird gel stuff inside a disposable diaper would come out into the Holy Water (this concern was complete with full-colored mental imagery of the above-mentioned open-mouthed horror from the church peeps). Yes, I know I probably would have had time after Mass to change her into a swim diaper, but I was going for simple and not rushed.

So, I planned to hold her and have her baptized like a smaller baby. We even did a practice at home in the sink to see if she would let me hold her that way and have water poured over her head. She didn’t mind it at all at home.

She was a little less enthusiastic about it at the church with the deacon standing over her.

But she did just fine.

I had taken the girls to the church on Friday morning to explain to them what would happen on Saturday. I talked with them about Holy Water and what it is (as best I understand it). I gave them little bottles to fill with Holy Water from the font, which we brought home and decorated afterward (I got the idea here). I let them choose how they wanted to do their baptism. They both got really excited when they heard they could stand in the water and decided they wanted to do it that way.

After that both of the older girls were so excited for their baptisms. My parents came to town Friday night and Miss ran right to her room to show them her little bottle of Holy Water saying, “Look Grandma! You’re going to love this!”

(Yes, that is a toilet-paper-roll Jesus. Gotta love DLTK)

They couldn’t wait to get their chance to stand in the font.

They were precious.

The whole experience with all three of them was just so special.

I think Lass’s favorite was the part with the candle. Since bringing it home, she has repeatedly asked to get hers out of the box and light it, or failing that to just carry it around.

Special Godparents:

I will never forget the looks on the faces of my girls as the water was poured on their heads. Their shy smiles and looks of wonder throughout the ceremony were priceless.

It was an amazing day.

The Freegas Band

Posted on September 4, 2013July 22, 2016 by Amy

For Part 2 of my Live! at Lake Thunderhead 2013 series I’d like to write a little bit about the band.

There is much about the band that shall remain a mystery, as I am not privy to its inner workings. Though I am sort of in the band in that I sing songs with them at the Labor Day Party, I’m not really in the band in that I’m a girl.

See, this band is not a functioning band except for one weekend of the year. They (we) don’t play together except for Labor Day weekend. This year we had two practice sessions (Friday and Saturday), only one of which included all of the band members. The rest of the time they’re just a bunch of brothers, cousins, and friends who like to send each other dirty, crap-talking emails and get together about once a year outside of Labor Day for “band practice.”

Naturally, being a female, I don’t get invited to these “Freegas Weekends,” which once upon a time were supposedly an opportunity during the year for the guys to get together and “practice” but are really just a thinly-veiled cover for a free-for-all guys weekend. They haven’t even bothered to take their musical instruments to these get togethers since 2009.

Please don’t read that to mean I’m bitter about not being invited. It would be weird if I was (invited I mean). I have zero interest in crashing the male bonding time my hubby gets with his best peeps, and I love that they get to do it. I only mention it to illustrate why I’m not really in the-band-that-most-of-the-time-isn’t-actually-a-band but is rather a bunch of middle aged men who like to get together and drink beer and play frisbee golf and um, do other manly stuff.

But I digress. Let me introduce you to the four originals.

The Horse:

My brother-in-law. He obviously plays multiple musical instruments as well as singing. He is a voice of reason among the other guys.

Zebulous Prime:

Bass player, vocalist, and sometimes drummer. Performer extraordinaire. He can harmonize like you wouldn’t believe.

Pestoika:

The mastermind, he comes up with most of the songs the band will sing each year. He plays every instrument the band uses and has showmanship to spare.

Benois (aka my hubby)

He can play the guitar, though he hasn’t done so at The Party in several years. He has a beautiful voice and is just a total rock star. Plus, he’s hot.

The four of these guys parade around the front of the stage, dancing and singing and playing and putting on a show like you’ve never seen before. They are all talented musicians, but more than that they know how to perform.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, there were two additions to the band in 2004.

J Holla

An amazing drummer. He is usually in the back of course, but occasionally graces the front of the stage or even the dance floor.

And last but most certainly not least, The Boy Wonder:

He is by far the youngest of the group and was only about 16 when he started playing at the party. He is a crazy good guitar player. Crazy good.

And then there’s one other honorary “band member.” J-Dub:

He does not participate in the musical performance. To my knowledge he has no musical talent whatsoever. He is more like a band manager/chief dirty joke teller/director of pointless banter. He and his wife also cook the wings on Saturday night. And he gets invited to the Freegas Weekends.

Finally, there’s me.

I’m an occasional add-in vocalist. Some years (like this year) I sing a lot, some years not so much. This year I got to do some really fun songs, including Love Shack, We Got the Beat, and my personal favorite of all time, Poker Face.

And I can’t leave out that for the past two years we’ve had another member, The Prodigy:

He plays violin on two songs and trumpet on one. And he’s only 14.

It’s hard to explain in a few words this unusual group of guys who, mostly, are all related. They are wacky and funny and talented and I wish I could adequately describe what happens when they all get up on stage together to perform.

The music is sometimes awesome, sometimes awful, but it doesn’t really even matter because when the wheels start to come off they just crank up the crazy and it all works out. If the crowd isn’t in a dancing frenzy they’re laughing hysterically, like at this year’s performances of “Business Time” and “Lunch Lady Land.”

Most of the time the crowd is dancing and jumping and clapping and singing along.

The guys take themselves just seriously enough that the music is good, but no so seriously that they don’t enjoy themselves even when it’s not. When one of the band members messes up of forgets the lyrics they just make something up or bust out some wicked dance moves. They welcome family members and friends up to the stage to sing along, whether they know the words (or melody) to the songs or not.

It’s not about putting on a perfect show, it’s about family.

These guys work hard to play music for their people. The band plays one show per year, for the reunion of their kin.

It doesn’t get any better than that.

I am so thankful that I can be a part of this. Part of the party. Part of the band. But most of all, part of this funny, hard-working, sometimes-totally-crazy-but-always-loveable family.

A History of Live! at Lake Thunderhead

Posted on September 3, 2013September 3, 2013 by Amy

I’m trying to figure out where to begin writing about the weekend we just had. If you haven’t read it yet, maybe you could start by checking out last year’s post, titled “How to Have the Best. Party. Ever.”, about the Labor Day Party/family reunion my in-laws do every year.

Last year my husband’s cousin and his wife hosted the party.

This year, it returned to the place of its inception. The Farm.

The weekend was so great. So special. So much. I just can’t write about it all in one post. So, I just decided this will be a little series of posts over the next few days.

Today? The history of Live! at Lake Thunderhead (L@LT) as best I know it.

I think it was 1999 when my husband, his brother, and their two cousins got together and played music for the first Labor Day shindig at the Farm. I hadn’t met my husband yet at that point, so my knowledge of this event comes only through the party lore, passed among family members over the years. As I understand it, the band, “Freegas” as they have come to be called, didn’t have a drum set at the time, or at least didn’t have it at the Farm for their impromptu jam session. They used an overturned 5-gallon bucket and a Tonka truck to bang out some drum sounds while they played music and drank beer. I believe that the name of the party, “Live! at Lake Thunderhead” comes from the intro to a recording that was made that evening of the band’s musical stylings.

I don’t know much about how the party happened the two years after that.

My first time at The Party was in 2002.

The Freegas boys had planned ahead and brought their drum set, some mics, and a crummy sound system. Many more family members had begun to join the festivities. It became a weekend-long party with guests (hubby and I included) camping in a “tent city,” (we were too poor then for RVs).

There was a weenie roast on Friday night, wings and fries and home brew made by close family friends on Saturday night, and The Party on Sunday, preceded by a shrimp boil (the traditions of these evening meals continue to this day).

The party took place on one small end of the dock.

Beginning in 2003 the three boat slips of the dock were filled in so the entire dock could be used for the festivities.

In 2003 and 2004 it poured rain, but the party went on anyway with tarps around the perimeter to keep things (mostly) dry.

2004 was a year of many changes for the party.

In 2004 my brother- and sister-in-law got married before the party, so the whole thing got stepped up a few notches.

There were changes for me that year. Up until that point, I had sung a few songs with the band each year. “Joker” and “Sweet Home Alabama” were my usual contributions. That year I started to become a bit more part of the band, as I sang more songs and even played the bass on a couple. I didn’t play it well, but I did it (yes, I’m wearing a muumuu in the photo below; not a good choice in retrospect, but see commentary below about the theme of the party…).

2004 also saw the addition of two new members to the band, another cousin on guitar and a family friend on drums. And it was the beginning of the themed party. That year the theme was “Hawaiian.”

2004 was the “epic” wedding/party. Most people don’t have a very clear memory of the specifics, but it was an awesome time. I mentioned in my post about last year’s party that it was one of the best parties I had ever been to. The 2004 party might rank #1. It was the year of “Wild Thing.” When the band was flogging and flailing with this song, Holla, the drummer took it over and singlehandedly delivered one of the best party performances ever.

To give you an idea of the momentum of that party, there was a huge thunderstorm with tornado warnings that began to roll in shortly after the party got started.

After the storm started getting really bad, my mother-in-law suggested we move the party up to their Morton building for safety reasons (Hello? We were on a dock. In a thunderstorm. I think she was the only sober person there), but there was just no stopping the freight train that was that party. I recall some yelling by the band and the crowd to the effect of, “Hell no!!” “Keep playing!” “Paaaarty!” And then my father-in-law threw up his hands, laughed, and said something like, “Screw it! We’re staying here!” The party went on.

Epic I tell you.

2005 was themed “Western.”

2006 was “Decades”

We had 80s

60s

50s

70s, 20s (!!), 80s, 60s:

I think that was my favorite theme.

2006 was also the first year the party moved from the dock to the building. This change was made, in spite of lots of kicking and screaming from some folks, for logistical (what a nightmare to fill all three of the boat slips and tarp around the whole dock; plus the dock is really far from the house, making it hard for family members with small children to put kids to bed and continue partying) and safety reasons (kids near water, lots of electrical equipment near water, etc).

2007 was “Hollywood”

2008 was “Bad Bridesmaids”

This theme involved dressing in the worst wedding/bridesmaid attire one could find, in honor of my mother- and father-in-law’s 40th wedding anniversary.

I think 2008 might have also been the year the band acquired decent speakers/sound system.

2009 was “Redneck/Hillbilly”

This was a great year for costumes but a bad year for the band/party. Instead of having it in the building, we had it on the lower deck (see Rule #1 from last year’s post) and it just wasn’t the same.

And Freegas didn’t perform to their abilities. Still fun, but nowhere near up to the standards of years prior. I don’t know exactly why it was a less-than-stellar event in 2009, but it seemed The Party had kind of imploded and needed a little breather.

2010 and 2011 were the Years-of-No-Live-at-Lake-Thunderhead.

Last year The Party returned as an add-on to a family gathering for an auction of my husband’s grandmother’s belongings. It was the first year the party was held someplace other than the Farm. And you know about how that went (or if you don’t, you really should read this, it will prepare you for what’s to come).

Next up will be a little bit about The Freegas Band.

The Fair

Posted on August 15, 2013 by Amy

I just love the Iowa State Fair.

We live in Wisconsin, but I’m not a big fan of our fair. It feels too urban, being located in Milwaukee. I only went once, when I was pregnant with Miss, and don’t care to go back. The Iowa State Fair, on the other hand, is just delightful.

When we go, we don’t do some of the typical fair things, like riding rides and playing games on the midway. My girls are a little too small for most of them, and I am a little iffy about fair rides. So we don’t even go down that way.

Mostly, we look at animals.

My girls are crazy about animals.

The girls listed their favorites from the day to include ostriches, elk, fish, cows, horses, swans, and wood ducks.

And the Big Yellow Slide, of course.

My favorite part of the day with them was our time in the DNR building. They were fascinated by the tanks full of fish and asked what types of fish were in each one.

Sis had fallen asleep in the stroller so we had lots of time to look at and talk about all the fish.

In the same building there was also an area with many animal pelts hanging together. We went through them all, and I asked the girls to name the animals. They were able to name every one except the woodchuck (which I couldn’t name either). They got obvious ones like the beaver, skunk, and raccoon. But also the bobcat, otter, badger (once I showed them the head), red and grey foxes, and opossum.

I don’t know why, but it tickled me immensely that they were able to name those animal hides.

And to top it off, we went outside to the DNR’s “pond” and had a blast watching the swans, geese, and ducks as they splashed and played in the water. This seemed like the biggest hit of the day in terms of the time the girls wanted to spend there.

Or maybe the biggest hit of the day was the food.

These girls have never had so much “junk food” in one day in their lives.

It was such a special day.

I Wonder if They’ll Remember This?

Posted on August 14, 2013 by Amy

We are at the Farm this week. We’re wearing ourselves out, and having fun, and doing All The Things.

The other day I went for a ride on Great Big Mable with my older girls.

That’s this thing, if you’re not familiar:

For some reason, as we were riding along, having a good old time, I got all nostalgic and started thinking, “I wonder if my girls are going to remember these times when they get older…”

I was thinking about all the trips we take so they can spend time with their grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins and all the fun things we do.

It got me thinking of my own childhood and my own memories of grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins.

I had a major walk down memory lane while riding old Mable.

I got to thinking about when I was a kid, playing with cousins, pool parties at my aunt and uncle’s house, family gatherings at my other aunt and uncles house, watching Dukes of Hazard with my cousins at my other aunt and uncle’s house. I remember singing a lot with my Grandma B., rocking in the old chairs on my Grandma and Papa’s front porch, going up north with them. I remember playing in my Grandma C.’s jewelry box, sitting on my Grandpa’s lap naming all my aunts and uncles as I touched each of their birthstones on his tie clip, climbing the tree in their backyard.

I thought about all these things on the Big Mable. And I’ve been thinking about them since. I’ve gone on an extended search of my childhood memories accompanied by lots of thoughts about my own kids.

“Will my girls remember when we did this?”

“Or this?”

“Will Lass remember finding that cool caterpillar?”

Some of my own memories are vague. Some are crystal clear.

Sometimes it’s just a sense memory. I remember smells, like my Grandma C.’s chicken cacciatore cooking. Sounds, like my Papa’s laughter. Tastes, like the sharp bitterness of martini (was this vodka? vermouth? I don’t know) on an olive out of my Grandpa’s drink, pancakes made more tasty because Grandma C. poured them in animal shapes, and the extra delicious grilled cheese my Grandma B. made. I can distinctly remember the feeling of rocking in those old rocking chairs on her porch.

I don’t know if I have many memories from when I was four or younger, as my kids are. Maybe a few around 4 or 5 years old. Being a flower girl in a wedding. Getting (accidentally) hit in the face with a baseball bat and needing stitches. Riding a carousel with my Dad.

My girls probably won’t remember much of what we’ve done this trip. They probably won’t remember today clearly. But maybe they’ll remember the smell of the fish they caught with their Dad. The sound of rocks plopping when tossed in the pond. The feel of the water and the sun.

Who knows? Maybe Miss will remember a sense of some of the things we’ve done this week or this summer. Lass probably won’t and Sis certainly won’t.

It doesn’t really matter I guess, because we’ll keep doing all these things, spending time with family, going to cool places, doing fun activities together, as they grow. And eventually they will be old enough to remember.

And happily, even if they don’t remember, they’ll know. Because it’s all documented here.