Breakfast on the Farm

If you ever get the chance, go!  They are awesome!!

 Breakfast is good.  The one we attended was highly organized.  We rode on trailers behind tractors...we rode in people movers...we rode on a haywagon behind a tractor.  The kids were in tractor heaven.  Everything is kid-oriented and very educational.  Breakfast is tasty.  It is great.  It is worth the time it takes.

It took about 1-1.5 hours to get breakfast upon arrival, but it is all very organized and structured.  People with special needs were accommodated quickly.  The kids learned so much about fertilizer and crop production in the modern era.  It was great.

 We only lost C a few times and the volunteers were very helpful in tracking him down.  That kid can disappear in 2 seconds.  :)  He and X loved the tractors and each time he wandered, he was just on the other side of a tractor.  :)

The kids are used to G'pa's tractors...but the equipment that farms 2,000+ acres is quite a bit bigger.  They were pretty impressed.

Our experience ended with some complimentary ice cream...and what doesn't end well when ice cream is involved.

Swimming Lessons

E took swimming lessons this year.  While she didn't preform any great feats poolside, she did learn that she can, in fact, get her face wet and life will not end.  This may not seem like a major feat but it was well worth the $40 spent and 4 weeks of lunches interrupted to figure that out.  Showering is so much easier now...

By the end, she was swimming (aka 'doggie paddling) by herself a little bit.  They still recommended her to complete Novice 1 again next year but she really did get much more comfortable in the water.  I was much more confident taking her swimming at Rock Lake with her new-found confidence.

The funniest thing (in retrospect) of swimming lessons was when the head lady threw her in the water because she wouldn't jump in the pool at the end of class.  E carried on and on and on so badly that the head lady she'd never do that to her again.  She claimed she'd never heard a kid carry on so much.  I kind of think that it served her right because I didn't really agree with throwing her in.  I'm glad I wasn't there...Jut was and he rolled with it much better than I would have.  But thankfully, there were no lasting effects on E's behalf.  Her good friend was in class with her, so she didn't blink an eye about going back the next day.

The most fun thing for me was that I got to take the boys swimming with me while she did her lessons.  It took me three weeks to figure out how best to do it, but the fourth week I finally got brave enough to take both boys.  It was fun.  C was really good about laying back in his life jacket while I caught X.  X could swim around with his floaty while I caught C when he jumped off the edge.  So, it was a good time.  X got so much braver by the end.  He wouldn't even go in the water the first time Jut and I took him swimming.  By the end of the four weeks, he was jumping right in the water.  C just loved the water from the get-go.  He's a fish.

But, it was fun.  I'm excited for lessons next year!

Smelling the Peonies

My 94 year old G'pa traipsed around his yard one evening to cut me a bouquet of peonies back in June.  Wasn't that so sweet?!  He cut so many buds that they blossomed for two weeks, I think.  It was so nice.  C loved 'smelling' the flowers.  It was too cute.  Jut got me flowers for our anniversary and C doesn't 'smell' with his tongue anymore.  Sad to see the little cute things change in just 6 weeks, but I thought that this picture was too adorable not to share/remember.

Meeting Miss L...the first 'first-cousin'

Many of my childhood memories involve my cousins.  Playing, swimming or mowing in the summers.  Skiing and holidays in the winter.  They are all fun memories.

Our kids finally have a cousin...well, they have lots of second or third cousins, but this was their first first-cousin.  Jut's sister had a baby on June 25th.    Thankfully, she decided to take a trip to MI when Miss L was about 6 weeks old.  We met in Lansing and hung out for a couple of hours.  It was so much fun.  She was so little and petite.  She was still smaller than C or X was when they were born.  She was just too precious.  Like all newborns, she liked to sleep and with all the hustle and bustle of the mall, she just closed her eyes and slept the entire time.

 E thought she was pretty special and not nearly as 'crushing' as C had been as a baby.

X was pretty excited to get a chance to hold her as well.

C on the other hand...he wasn't so enthusiastic about that little bundle that Mom and Dad wanted to hold.  He didn't want his picture taken and therefore is in very few pictures and the ones that he is in he's either not happy or his face isn't visible.


 I think he wants to retain the label of 'baby' of the family.  Sharing the attention was not his strong suit.  (Although, I must confess that he did miss his nap and that may have played a huge role in his disinterest of Miss L.)  I'm sure if we give it a few years, they'll be able to cause many antics together.

Potty-learning has started

I like to document when the interest in going potty starts.  It is always interesting to see watch when interest actually becomes life.  C started two weeks ago (July 25th) to become interested.  He gets a bit of 'poisonous' time each day (aka time to run around without a diaper).  While he was enjoying his poisonous time, X came running out to me in the kitchen, "MOM!  C went potty on the potty!!!"  Sure enough, upon investigation, C had indeed gone potty.  So, we celebrated with a marshmallow.     He did it again the following day...again completely on his own accord.  We were happy dancing and eating marshmallows.

Last week, he  went a bit of poo, too.  He got off the potty looking very distressed.  "Uh oh!  Poo!" he exclaimed.  It was funny but he wasn't ready for that.  But, we celebrated with a marshmallow anyway.  He is by no means headed for undies any time soon...but it is always exciting to see the interest begin.

He loves sitting on the froggie potty.  He loves being diaperless.  X decided he was done with diapers before he was 2.5...maybe C will follow suit and leave the diapers behind in less than a year.  That is crazy to think about...but I won't complain.  That would be 3 less loads of laundry per week!  :)

July 4th fun

 I decided that we needed to do something fun for the fourth, but I wanted to have a garage sale out at our 'new' house to get rid of some of the contents that had been left behind.  So, the logical conclusion was to camp out at the new house and begin building memories out there.

We had never done any type of camping with the kids before.  So, our first stint just twelve miles from our current house seemed pretty safe.  Plus, we were at a house...we would just be staying outside.  Mom and Dad graciously agreed to pull out the pop-up trailer from the barn for us to stay in.  It all seemed like a good plan.

It was a lot of fun, but I am glad that we only 'camped' for 2 nights.  We were all extremely exhausted by the end and were very glad to return to our 'real' house.  But, we had lots of fun and made many new memories...and that was the goal...so it was a successful venture.  Plus, we sold lots of stuff and made a bit of money.  So, that was good too.

One of the things E is excited about for moving is the 'monkey' tree.  It is a tree that had a rough beginning but is a great climbing tree now.  A cow started by eating the top of it...and then the old dairy barn fell on it.  I remember G'ma saying that it should just be chopped down.  But, it is the perfect climbing tree now.  E loves it.  She spends lots of time hanging out in it when we are out there.

C just enjoys being outside and running off all his energy.  He's playing with a glowstick sword from the night.  He had a great time camping...as long as he wasn't going to sleep.  Sleeping wasn't his favorite thing in the camper.

Mom and Dad made the comment the night before the garage sale, "We should put a 'for sale' sign in the trailer and see if anyone buys it."  So, there was a 'for sale' sign in the house.  In the morning, I put it in the trailer.  Little did we expect anyone to show any interest in the trailer...but less than 2 hours into the sale, Mom had an offer to buy it and she sold it.  We were all shocked that anyone would want the little trailer that we had hauled all over the west...the glorified tent on wheels.  I still worry that Mom and Dad weren't really serious about selling the trailer when they mentioned it...and I sold it for them.  Oops.  Guess the moral of the story is that only mention selling something to me if you are truly serious.

The kids were pretty sad to see it go.  The lady that bought it allowed us to use it for the remainder of the weekend.  They loved the 'camping trailer' and wanted to use it again.  But, we won't use that one again.  It is off to another loving home.  I hope they'll have as many fun adventures in it as we did.  :)

To keep the kids entertained, we brought along our inflatable pool.  That was fun for an hour until all the water came out because it has a few holes in it.  The kids had fun playing in the freezing water while it lasted, however.

One of the nicest things about our sale and weekend at the house was that my mom's sister and brother-in-law were up from KY.  They brought my g'pa over and hung out with us for the two days during the sale.  That was fun.  We don't often get to spend extended time with them...they have short visits and two sides of the family to see.  But, we got to visit with them for two whole days...it was really nice.  It was a little strange making memories with the other side of the family at G'pa and G'ma's house but very special too.  We are going to love living there!!

Side note about garage sales:  I am not a garage saler nor have I ever hosted a garage sale before.  That is an interesting culture.  We had a ton of men come through, which surprised me.  We had numerous people stop because they knew G'ma and G'pa and were curious.  A few of them shared some very special stories.  That was neat.  We had our prices so low that people didn't even want change (even for $5 or $10 bills)...that was funny too.  It was an interesting experience.

The Homestead...

 We ventured to the Chippewa Nature Center at the end of June for some fun family entertainment.  On Sunday afternoons, they host 'homestead days'.  After church, we set out to check it out.

The first thing we got to do was see some sheep and explore a homestead.  The kids played with some 'toys' and checked out the home.

Then, E got to make some rope.  She thought that was pretty cool.  It took three people to make rope.  She even got to keep some and bring home.

C loved all the animals.  There were sheep, pigs, chickens and a cow and calf.  He could have stayed with the animals all day.  I think he would have even jumped into the pig pen...the pigs looked like they were having so much fun in the mud and splashing in their water troughs.
The cow didn't like C however.  She kept loudly 'mooing' at him.  She sounded very angry.  We later found out that cows think that anything under 3 feet is a predator.  So, she thought her baby was in danger...and she probably was angry.  Oops.  We'll keep C further away next time.

They had a beautiful garden.  If my garden could look like that, I'd be so impressed.  They also take all the produce to the local homeless shelters or food pantries in Midland.  Last year they donated 60+ lbs of produce.  I thought that was pretty cool.

E's favorite part of the experience was the schoolhouse.  She loved the lady that was the teacher and seeing all the McGruffy reading books.  She told me that she was glad that she didn't have to memorize all those things in there like 'Laura' did.  After the 'lesson' (learning about the school), they went outside and played games.  It took E a bit to catch on to the games, but she did great once she figured them out.

X had fun playing the games too.  He especially liked the ring toss.  Both kids liked trying the stilts, but that was a skill neither mastered...nor did I for that matter.  They are tricky!

C just enjoyed tooling around as always.  He goes with the flow pretty well.  He was checking out the cow again.

To end our excursion, we took Jut to the main building and showed him the museum inside and did a few of the activities set out in the classroom.  Then, we walked a bit down the river and found a nice bench at the intersection of the Chippewa and Pine Rivers to have a bit of a snack.  It was a fun afternoon.