The Farm

A Weekend in Photos

Posted on by Amy
We are doing it up right this week, here at the Farm.  The weekend was hot and sunny and beautiful and perfect for little girls to have fun outside with cousins and aunts and uncles.  

There was mud digging and splashing

Sand castle building

Frog catching

And butterfly chasing.

The girls did plenty of drawing with sidewalk chalk.

We went exploring and treasure hunting.

Miss got her hair done like her older cousin.

I need to learn how to do this!

The girls battled with some swords.

Check out her form!

Baby Sis observed happily.

There was a rousing game of kick ball.

To top it off, a campfire with s’mores and fireworks.

And, somebody is two months old already.  Holy smokes.

Gotta go.  I have some mud-pie-making to do.  Or treasure hunting.  Or maybe swing pushing.  Or sidewalk-chalking…

Santa Came to Town

Posted on by Amy
We were at the Farm over the weekend for Christmas with my husband’s family.  The girls got to have tons of fun playing with their cousins.

The grown ups got to have lots of fun visiting.  This is a photo of me with my also-pregnant sister-in-law.  She is due about two weeks after me.  The woman brought O’Doul’s.  Gotta love a fake beer on Christmas Eve.

And then of course, the Christmas festivities began.  We opened gifts with the family, which is kind of crazy since my husband has five siblings.  There were 14 adults and 13 kids opening and slinging wrapping paper all over.

It was fabulous.

One of the biggest gift “hits” was this “Rody” for Miss from my husband’s parents.

Daddy blew it up and away she went.

It caused a bit of friction once Little Sister noticed it.

She was pretty upset at not being able to ride it right away.

But Big Sister is such a sweet girl, she let her sis have a turn,

hovering nearby the entire time, of course.

And, time’s up!

It’s a really cool toy.

Finally, Miss got distracted and Lass got to have a bit of time on it.  Oh, the holiday drama!

After family gifts, the kids all went downstairs to wait for Santa.  In my husband’s family, Santa arrives on Christmas Eve before the kids go to bed.  They have to wait patiently downstairs for him (while the moms put out stockings and all the Santa gifts upstairs).

When he arrives, he makes lots of noise stomping around and “Ho-Ho-Ho-ing.”  The kids scream and run up the stairs, hoping to catch a glimpse of him before he gets into his sleigh and rides off.

We all got to see him as he ran out of the house and back to his sleigh waiting in the grass.  Unfortunately one of the older cousins may have seen him a little too much.  He said to his mom something like, “I wish we got to have the real Santa, not the one with dark hair and eyebrows.”  I guess the wig wasn’t quite straight on my brother-in-law!

When we went back inside, of course the girls had a blast with all their presents.

Miss got the two Care Bears she asked Santa for, and they haven’t left her side since.  Here she is reading one of her new books to Grumpy Bear.

In my last post I wrote about how Miss has been insistent about wearing her “ballerina costume” of leotard, tights, and ballet shoes.  The trip to the Farm was no different.  I told her she had to wear some nice clothes for Christmas dinner and family gifts, and we compromised by putting her nice clothes on over the ballerina costume (if you look at some of the pictures above you can see her little ballet shoes). After getting her Santa gifts, the “real” clothes were off and she was back in ballerina mode.

I finally got her out of the ballerina costume when we went on a treasure hunt on Christmas day.  I told her she needed to wear warm clothes and that her ballerina costume really needed to be washed while we were out.

The weather was chilly but beautiful, and as always the treasure hunt was memorable.

Lass was a bit like the little brother in “A Christmas Story.”  she was so bundled up she could barely move.

Miss found some shells and some acorns for her “treasures.”

She got to check out lots of interesting things, like this deer rub.

She got to examine some mushrooms growing on these trees

And look at these little berries.

Lass fell asleep during our walk in the woods.

Overall, the trip to the farm was a great time for all.  And when we came home, the girls found that Santa had been to our house too while we were gone.  He left some gymnastics mats, a balance beam, and a baby doll high chair (which so far has only been used to feed pizza to Care Bears).

Oh yeah, Santa left bubble wrap too.

I am still trying to get things back in order here after so much holiday traveling. Yesterday I folded six loads of laundry and I still have more to do!  The toys aren’t all put away, but they’ve at least all made it into the house now.  The spare room in the basement still has wrapping paper strewn all over the floor.  But the traveling was absolutely worth it, and we had a magical Christmas.  I hope you did too.

I Love a Treasure Hunt

Posted on by Amy
My husband hunts deer.  He is a bowhunter, which means he spends a lot of time sitting up in a tree watching deer.  He loves observing deer and the other animals he sees while sitting in a tree for hours and hours (this year he saw a bobcat twice).  Eventually, he does kill a deer.   This year he killed two.  Our freezer is fully stocked with venison to last for the next year.  This is great, because venison is much healthier to eat than beef. It’s leaner and you never have to worry about hormones or antibiotics or anything else weird and gross like that.  Some people prefer to get their meat at the grocery store, where they never have to think about how it got there.  I prefer venison.  I know where it came from, have a good general idea of what it ate, and know how and by whom (my husband and brother in law) it was butchered and processed and packaged.  
All this is leading up to the point that we got home last night after spending a week and a half at the Farm while my husband hunted.  And also to give the warning that there are photos near the end of this post of some dead deer.  The photos also have my handsome husband and adorable older daughter in them, but if you don’t like photos of dead deer, you may not want to read this entire post.  I’ll give a warning right before those photos come up, so you can feel safe reading through the first part of this lovely post if you like.  
Since we were at the Farm, Miss and Lass got to see their cousins and spend time doing fun things like going on treasure hunts.  We went on an especially fun one yesterday.  Because the water is so low, we went to the beach, where there was lots of room to walk around and find treasures.

Miss got to see the work of some beavers.

 And my husband found the coolest and biggest caterpillar I have ever seen.

The kids also found a partial skeleton of what was probably a raccoon.

It’s so fun to just go outside and turn a walk around the beach or the woods into an adventure.  Anything Miss picked up, from a hickory nut, to a shell, to a pine cone could be called “treasure” and she was all into it.  Treasure hunts are one of my favorite things about being at the Farm.

The girls had lots of other fun times playing with their cousins over the past weekend too.  Dress up was a favorite.

Prior to this weekend when all the aunts and uncles and cousins came down, we were just all hanging out together with my mother and father in law.  As I mentioned, my husband spend a lot of time in a tree, but we had lots of fun with him when he came in.  We indulged in some special treats, like ice cream, since we were on vacation.

My girls like ice cream.

And we spent a lot of time just playing.  Miss had fun with this guitar one afternoon.  She has really been into singing lately, often making up her own songs.  The other day she started strumming the guitar and singing a song that went something like, “Mommy and Lass and Daddy and Miiiiissss. You’re so cuuuute and so adoooorable.”

I would tell her what a beautiful song it was and how wonderful her singing is, and then she would stand up and strike a proud pose next to the guitar, come over to me and tell me, “I love you Mommy,” and then do it all again.  I don’t know how many times she repeated this, but it was a lot and I loved it.  It was cuuute.  And adoooorable.

Okay, here’s your WARNING: Dead deer photos follow.

My husband shot a buck and a doe.  Miss was quite fascinated with them and asked lots of questions.  She was very interested in the fact that “Daddy deer” are called bucks and have antlers and “Mommy deer” are called does and “have ears.”

Lass lost interest much more quickly, but of course had fun being outside anyway.

I’m proud of my husband.  He’s an ethical hunter and doesn’t kill more than what we will eat.  He practices shooting his bow a great deal beforehand so he will make a clean shot when the time comes.  He spends hours and hours observing the deer and learning about them, and passes this information on to his family members, including his nephews who also enjoy hunting.  He spent a morning hunting with one nephew and helping him shoot a deer himself.  And even though it’s a little rough to be away from home with my girls for almost two weeks, I feel fortunate that we are able to go with him when he hunts.  And it is completely worth it to know that he had such a great week outside doing something he really enjoys.  He is an amazing father and husband, and he deserves that.

Of course, it’s fabulous to be home. And you’d better believe I’m going to milk my “sacrifices” of the past week and a half to get myself a nice massage 🙂

Can’t We Just Play?

Posted on by Amy
I think sometimes the best opportunities for play and learning come from the simplest things.

Like a bowl of gourds.  A couple of hedge apples.  An acorn found.

Recently I had a conversation with some people about their experiences and thoughts on their childrens’ educations.  The children of these other folks are older than mine and most of them are already in school.  It was kind of shocking to me that these other parents were talking about the importance of sending their children to the right private preschools and grammar schools so that they would be able to get into an Ivy League school when the time comes for college.  These are kids in kindergarten, maybe second grade.  I had never really heard of such an idea before.  I was surprised to hear that some people think that going to *gasp* public school is practically a death sentence in terms of one’s later educational and occupational opportunities.  My husband and I both attended public schools growing up, public universities and public graduate schools, and I think we’re both doing just fine.  We both have successful, fulfilling careers (though my professional career is mostly on hold for now, of course).  I don’t think anything would have been significantly different for either of us if we had attended fancy private schools and/or obtained degrees from Ivy League universities in terms of where we find ourselves professionally and intellectually.  We would probably just have a lot more debt.

Don’t get me wrong.  I don’t have anything against private schools.  Lots of people send their children to private schools for lots of different reasons.  Some for religious reasons.  Some are not fortunate enough to live in a place where the public school system is good.  We happen to be lucky that where we live, the public schools are great, and I fully intend to send our girls to them.  I’m not trying to pass judgement on public versus private schools.  I think as parents, we just try to make the best of what we have.  I know I want to give my kids every opportunity to succeed and excel.  But I personally believe that much of their success and happiness is going to come much more from what my husband and I teach them about life and working hard for what you want than about any particular school we could send them to, or thing we could buy for them, or whether they know their multiplication tables by age six.

After I started thinking about this whole idea, I saw an article that my cousin posted on Facebook.  It’s from Scientific American and is called “Preschool Tests Take Time Away From Play — And Learning.”  It’s a great article reminding us that the best way for young children to learn is to play and cautioning against too much stressful testing and direct instruction for preschoolers.  Again, this type of super-focused preschool is not something I had ever really thought of before.  One of the things I love about Miss’s school is that they have time for open play and exploration every day.  And they color, they paint, they manipulate water and sand and flour, they glue stuff, they grow plants and have a worm composter, they do yoga.  They learn mostly through experience rather than sitting and listening to someone teach them about the geography of Asia or the different periods of Picasso’s art.  They do preschool at her preschool.  She’s allowed to go only twice a week and it’s fun for her.

I love to watch my girls play.  They are so amazing at it.  And another thing I love?  What I think is the best “school” for little minds?  This:

No worries, this nest did not have any wasps in it!

Taking my girls outside and to other places to experience things hands on is the best thing ever.  This week Miss has found walnuts and acorns, some whole and some eaten by squirrels.  She has gotten to hold some cool fossils that have been found here (in case you’re wondering, we’re at the Farm for deer hunting).  She has seen lots of deer running, some bucks chasing does.  She has seen an almost completely eaten squirrel (she said, “Yuck”).  She has held deer antlers.  Lass has filled and dumped the bowl of gourds over and over.  She has picked up rocks and sticks, and both girls have sat and jumped in leaves.  With each of these experiences, we have talked to the girls about what they are seeing.  Miss asks questions.  Their time here and in other places where they can see and touch and play with the things around them provide such rich learning experiences.

My girls don’t have to go to Harvard.  They can if they want to, but it’s not necessary.  We will stress the importance of a good education, sure.  But they will also learn that the best education comes from embracing life and the world around them and learning from every experience.  And for now, we’ll play.

A Week to Remember

Posted on by Amy
We got back late last night from a long, tiring, yet fun-filled ten days at the Farm. The girls grew so much during the week it seems, with so much to do and so many loving people around to do it with. Both sets of their grandparents, aunts, uncles, a gazillion cousins. They saw cool and interesting things and had new experiences. This bird’s nest is just one example of the treasure trove of nature that is the Farm.

The photo doesn’t do it justice. It’s made mostly of pieces of baling twine, twisted intricately around the branches and woven with grass, and probably other stuff. The general consensus was that it was probably an oriole’s nest. We didn’t bring it back with us, though that would have been a hell of a find for Miss to take to preschool. Miss’s Baba also gave her a robin’s egg, but we forgot that too. Miss saw deer, a coyote, a huge praying mantis, the biggest spider I’ve ever seen outside a glass case, a stick bug, and on and on. She really loved checking out the milkweed pods and walnuts that she found on the ground.
A different kind of new experience came for her in the form of corn. She has had sweet corn many times that I cut off the cob for her, but this week she had her first try at eating it right off the cob. She thought that was pretty cool.


But much more thrilling was her first ride on the “Great Big Mable” float pulled behind my in-law’s boat.



She didn’t seem scared in the slightest.
Just waving and smiling. My little daredevil.
Right after coming in from the boat and Mable ride, she went fishing with her Daddy. They caught several fish, and she had lots of fun with the worms.



One fish broke off their hook, so Miss sat and watched for fish with my mom while her Daddy went to get a new hook.
Then they were back in business.




Poor Lass is too little to get in on lots of the action her sister is getting into now, but she had great fun playing with her cousins. She really started moving with her walking this week too. Though she took her first steps shortly after turning 11 months, she never really got going with walking, and in fact until a few days ago, had almost stopped trying entirely. Now she’s really getting into it, choosing to walk instead of crawling more and more often, and stringing together more and more steps.

After her fishing time with her Dad, Miss got ready to go for a treasure hunt. She got all ready in her boots and headed out to the Ranger. The treasure hunt is one of my favorite things about the farm.
Tons of kids and adults pile on the Rangers and go off to explore and look for treasures of all kinds. I used to love going on treasure hunts when I first started coming to the Farm almost a decade ago. I was always the “City Mouse” to my husband’s “Country Mouse” family, and thoroughly enjoyed going out and being awed by all the finds. It’s a hundred times more fun to do it now with my kids.
We stopped to pick lots of wild flowers, which Lass loved.

Then we got down to the beach, where the kids splashed around and looked for shells and critters.

There were tons of tiny frogs hopping all around and the kids had a blast trying to catch them. Miss got to hold one that her older cousin caught for her. She also found a snake that her uncle grabbed up for her. That girl and her snakes…
Lass enjoyed the beach too.
It was really a week to remember. Every new experience for my girls seems like something new and amazing for me too. I love every minute of it.
Today we savored the trip and each other, happy to be home and back in our routine. Summer is winding down quickly here in the North Country. Today was crisp and felt very much like fall already. Football has started (Go Blue!). And preschool starts this week! Loving every minute.

A Snake and a Cake

Posted on by Amy
We had Lass’s birthday party on Saturday. We are at the Farm, and are so lucky to have such a wonderful place to have a party. A perfect example of how things often happen here is that one of the girls’ cousins found a snake shortly before the party started and brought it up to the house. Everyone was shying away from it, except Miss of course.


She thought it was pretty cool.

It was a dead snake,


but she didn’t care. I love, love, love that my girls can have experiences like this. Miss was not squeamish in the least about holding that snake, and that makes me smile.



Something else that makes me smile is a first birthday party. I like birthdays. I like celebrating my girls’ birthdays, but there is something just a little extra special about a first birthday.


It’s seeing the look on the face of my littler girl, who has never really had cake before, when she sees it for the first time. A special little cake just for her.


It’s feeling her excitement when everyone sings a song all together, just for her.


It’s this look of “Can I really? Really?”


And then the laughter and joy in watching her gradually try it out


and finally dig in.




She spent a few minutes just squishing her hands in the cake, loving the feel of it.


And then she remembered, “Oh yeah, this stuff tastes good too!”






I love this!


Getting ready to dive in…


Yum!!!







Washing it all down.




How many shots does it take to get our little family photo with everyone looking at the camera and smiling? Not so easy with a 2.5 year old, a 1 year old, and a cake sitting in front of both of them. In the first attempt, we did pretty well. Lass had already had her fill of cake. Unfortunately, Miss hadn’t gotten her piece yet, and she couldn’t take her eyes off Lass’s totally destroyed cake.


Second try? Miss stole a pinch of cake, and Lass didn’t like it too much.


Third try? Lass decided she’s better eat more before her sister got it all.
Oh well. They’re great photos anyway. Thanks to my Auntie for taking them (and for coming to the party from 3 hours away… and picking up the cakes…)


Big sister finally got her cake and ice cream.




She even shared with Grandpa.


And the clean up effort.



It was a wonderful day and a perfect party. So many family members came to celebrate with us, and that always means so much to us. Huge props to my in laws for letting us have this special event at their Farm. I know Lass won’t remember this day, but I’m thrilled to have these great photos to show her when she gets older. And the day is indelibly imprinted in my memory, just as Miss’s first birthday party a year and a half ago is. I love a first birthday party.

Fun at the Farm, a Few Firsts, and Father’s Day

Posted on by Amy

Last week was full of the fresh air and beauty of the place we call The Farm.


I love how this place seems to seep into our souls and revive us. Miss is in her element here. She would spend all day every day outside if she could, and comes close when at The Farm. Upon waking, while still drowsy with sleep, she will look up through her crazy bed-head hair at her Daddy and say, “Go outside?”

She had so much opportunity in the past week to play with her “kids”, which is what she calls her cousins. And they seem to adore her and Lass. They dote on my girls, especially the older cousins. It warms my heart to see how much Miss loves being with her kids and how wonderful they are to her and her sister.


The Farm is all about the simple things. Watching my girls thrive here is so satisfying. No fancy toys needed. Just the imagination and innocence of a two year old. One of her favorite things last week was going out with her Daddy to throw rocks into the pond over and over.




She and Lass had a blast on the swing set, as usual.
Lass went down the slide, with assistance of course, for the first time and loved it. She has turned out to be quite a little climber, trying repeatedly to climb up the slide, climbing up the stairs for the first time, on top of suit cases, etc. Oh boy.

My girls just love playing with their Daddy.

Miss refused to take off this life jacket, except when she went on the swing.



A day outside would not be complete without some sidewalk chalk. Miss has started showing her artistic talents.

Lass got to try out the chalk for the first time.




Miss had her first popsicle.


Miss asked me to draw our family. Yes, I drew this. No, I am not embarrassed. Much.
As much as we love The Farm, we are happy to be home today. Here’s a real family photo after we went out for brunch to celebrate the most important man in our world.
Husband, Daddy. He is amazing and does so much for us. I am thankful every day to have such a wonderful husband and Daddy for our girls.
Happy Father’s Day.

Fishing

Posted on by Amy
Once upon a time, back before my husband and I had little ones, we used to go fishing together a lot. My husband is quite the fisherman, and in the early years of our relationship it was a fun way for us to spend time together. A lot of time. We would go out on the boat at the crack of dawn and stay out all day. Sometimes talking, sometimes not. Sometimes freezing our butts off. Sometimes sweating half to death. Sometimes catching fish. Sometimes not.
I started out as a complete klutz with a fishing rod. I frequently got my lure hung up on something under the water. Once in a while even in a tree. Above the water. Sometimes I managed to swing the rod wildly and nearly take my husband’s head off. Frequently my line got hopelessly tangled. I didn’t have the right technique for reeling in a fish on the rare occasion that I caught one. I couldn’t operate a trolling motor. I didn’t know how to take a fish off a hook. Basically, I was a disaster with a fishing rod when he started taking me fishing. I won’t even go into my early attempts to assist with getting the boat in and out of the water.
Now, I could spin this into a lovely romantic tale where I tell you all about how patient and kind my husband was with me when teaching me the art of fishing. How gentle and tolerant he was when I made my very frequent mistakes. When he had to back the boat up because I had cast behind us and my lure was caught on a rock. When I broke one of his fishing rods. When I nearly ran the boat into a bunch of rocks because he was in the back struggling to get my lure unstuck from some unknown underwater vise and I was totally clueless about running the trolling motor. I could tell a beautiful fishing love story. Except that wasn’t how it went. Not. Even. Close. My wonderful hubby is a hard core fisherman. He yelled. He swore. A lot. At first.

He caught this walleye last night
He yelled and swore a lot at first. See, those early days of fishing together were a great way for us to strengthen our relationship. Fortunately we had quite a strong relationship to begin with. So, when he yelled, I (essentially) told him to cut it out. And to his credit, he did. Most of the time. If I did something stupid, I apologized. If he lost his temper, he apologized. And miraculously, he kept asking me to go with him. And I kept going. I learned a ton and eventually became quite a competent fisherwoman. Some of my best memories are of the times we spent fishing together. And I think I softened him up a little bit for our daughters. Okay, who am I kidding? They don’t need any help from me to melt their Dad. It’s a good thing too, because I think they’re going to spend a lot of time fishing with him.
Today Miss saw her cousins fishing and was very into it.
She quite enjoyed checking out the bait, both the bucket of minnows and the box of worms.

She requested her own fishing rod so she could give it a try. Her Baba rigged up a rod for her and got her going.
Within a few seconds they got a bite.

Miss was so excited to “catch” her first fish. It was a bluegill.
But then she wasn’t so sure that she wanted to get very close to it. This is her, “I’m-not-sure-what-to-do-that-thing-is-kind-of-freaking-me-out” face.
She wouldn’t touch the fish, but we did manage to get her to stand close enough for it to get a few photos.

To top off our day of fishing, Miss’s cousins caught 13 huge crappies that my brother-in-law and father-in-law cleaned and my mother-in-law fried up for dinner. It was delicious, and Miss gobbled it up. I think we’re going to be doing a lot of fishing this week.

Midwest Love

Posted on by Amy
We wait a long time for spring here. Sometimes, like this year, it’s a really long wait. We cherish the few days of sun and warmth we get in between March and April snowstorms (we had another snowstorm after I confidently posted here that spring had arrived for sure). But eventually, it always comes. And spring here is so worth the wait.
This is the Midwest.
We have spectacular thunderstorms. Miss has learned to embrace them rather than fear them.


And we have beautiful, perfect days of sunshine and breezes and 75 degree weather. This past weekend we were at the Farm and many of Miss and Lass’s cousins came down to visit. It was so fun to watch the girls with their cousins playing and getting all sorts of attention as the “out-of-town” cousins. It makes me sad that they don’t get to do this more often, but they sure did take full advantage of the time they had to play. Saturday was a day of playing chase and rolling in the grass, horsing around and swinging, sidewalk chalking and kite flying and more chasing while mommas visited and kept watch.





















And just in time for the appetites that got worked up, a weiner roast for dinner, complete with s’mores for dessert. Miss had never had s’mores before. In fact, she’d never had marshmallows before. She was puzzled and thrilled by their stretchiness and gooey-ness and stickiness.











And after dinner? A sword fight with indulgent older cousins of course!
On guard!

The evening was topped off with a friendly game of softball, in which even the littlest ones were allowed to join.




After a few minor injuries, the game was switched to kickball, which Miss enjoyed even more.




When you wait so long for it, you appreciate it so much and try hard to make the most of every moment during days like these. Miss keeps saying, “Where’s my kids?” and “I want to play with my cousins.” I’m sad that we live so far from family, but happy that we can have days like these. Maybe it’s like the weather. Maybe since we have to wait so long between visits with family, when we have them we make the most of every moment.
I’d like to add that we were traveling on Mother’s Day. Happy Mother’s Day to all the wonderful mothers I know. My Mom, my Grandma, my Mother in law, my Auntie, all my “mom-friends”. . . Thanks for all you bring to my life.

Cheese Kite

Posted on by Amy
I’m the guest blogger on the blog “Stay in the Car Mom” today. I did my guest post about what I learned at cooking class, and included a recipe for braised Southwest Barbecue Pork Ribs. Check it out here. Thanks Cathy for having me as a guest blogger.
Today was very windy. You know what that means.



Miss got to fly a kite! You probably can’t tell from this picture, but it’s a “SpongeBob SquarePants” kite. Miss called it her “cheese kite.” I didn’t correct her. Who needs their two-year-old to discover SpongeBob?
My mother-in-law showed her how to fly it.
And we even let her try it herself. We probably should have had her hold it with two hands. But I was focused on taking her adorable photo, and my mother-in-law was focused on getting out of the way of me taking her adorable photo, so you can imagine what happened.

Oh yes. She let it go. It was almost lost over the lake. Thank goodness for those beautiful redbuds, in which the string for the kite got tangled, allowing my husband and mother-in-law to retrieve it.
It was too cold and windy out for Lass today. So she stayed inside
and posed for some adorable photos of her own.




I can’t get enough of her hair!
I apologize for doing so many wordy, photo-lacking posts lately. My computer problem really messed up my access to my photos and my iPhoto for a while. I have a new hard drive and was able to restore my old photos, with much difficulty and long waiting. So now I’m back in business. I don’t much enjoy doing posts with no photos, so rest assured I am returning to posting with them. I’ve tried to make up for the recent lack with the last two posts.
P.S. The new season of “Chopped” starts tonight on Food Network at 10pm Eastern time!