Our Trip to the Farm

We had the best day today! Today I took the kids to a farm that is used primarily to host Christian retreats and meetings. Many of their activities are also available to the public - which is why we went.

First we enjoyed the petting barn. Tyler thought the chickens rushing to eat the corn he threw in was hilarious. We saw lots of brown eggs on one side. On the other side of the coop, we saw some fuzzy looking black hens that were sitting on eggs. We heard tiny "peep peep" sounds and looked closer to find a little fuzzy chick sitting next to a broken egg. When we came back later, we found another little chick. There were llamas, goats, sheep, horses, a cow, a donkey, cats, kittens, and a pot-bellied pig to pet (if they let you). The chickens, goats and cats were very friendly. There was a hay maze for the kids to crawl through up in the loft inside the barn.

Once we were done in the barn, we headed to the bunny hut. There were several cages of bunnies. We could open the cages and hold any of the rabbits we wanted to, as long as we put them back in their own cages when we were done. To the kids' delight one cage held a mommy with her baby rabbits. As Danielle says, they were adorable! We had to visit the bunny hut twice because the kids didn't want to leave the babies.

After I finally convinced the kids to put the baby bunnies back, we went to see the deer enclosure. Tyler loves deer. The lady at the registration center told me the deer would come running when they saw us because they like to eat the tall grass on our side of the fence. Sure enough, they came running. The kids got to feed and pet the deer. They were surprised that the deer's antlers felt velvety. (Danielle was also surprised the pig felt "bristly".) As you can see, we found a non-velvety antler on the ground, too. Tyler was delighted to get so close to the deer.

When we were done feeding the deer, we headed over to the stables. I have been protesting our zoo because they doubled the price of the pony rides (among other things) to $4 PER KID for a small walk around a tree 1 TIME! Today we "rented" a pony for $5. We were supposed to have her for 1/2 hour, but we probably could have kept her longer if we wanted. After the "cowboy" (as Danielle called him) got us set up, I led our horse Valentine around an enclosure while the kids took turns riding her. They had so much fun! It was such a good deal for the money, and it was the ONLY thing that cost us any money today!

After the pony rides, we played in the playbarn, rode the wooden horse, and "drove" the tractor. We revisited the bunnies and kittens, found a restroom to thoroughly scrub our hands, and headed home. When Ron got home from his trip tonight, the kids talked non-stop about our time at the farm. It was such a great time. Finally, this was one time when the real event played out even better than I had envisioned in my head!

The Spray Park

Today we went to the spray park with Tyler's friend Megan and her mom and baby brother. By the end of last summer, the kids were bored with this park, so I have tried to avoid it this summer. That seems to have worked because the kids had a really nice time playing together there today. Tyler giggled about taking his shirt off in front of Megan, but all went well. :)

Here are some pictures from our day:

There are some big rocks situated around the park. Against our better judgement, the kids played "princesses and bad guy" on them. (Really, how smart is it to surround a kids' play area with big pointy rocks??) Here Danielle was pretending to be Ariel and was "singing" like Ariel did on the rock in the movie.

Star Gazing with My Son

Early this morning was the peak viewing time for the Perseid meteor shower. The articles I read beforehand indicated the peak viewing time would be from 2-4am, and the "show" would be better than usual this year because it was a new moon, causing the sky to be dark. Tyler has always been interested in the stars, so I thought it would be nice to share this with him if possible.

I went outside a little after midnight to see if I could see anything from our backyard. After about 5 minutes, a brilliant white light streaked over my head, leaving an orange trail in the darkness. It was beautiful. I decided not to wait until 2 and woke Tyler up to watch with me.

Still wiping the sleep from his eyes, he held his little flashlight while I grabbed a comforter, a couple pillows, and a sleeping bag. We made our way into the dark backyard and set up camp: we spread the comforter out on the ground, rested our heads on the pillows so we could watch the sky, and snuggled under the sleeping bag. Hunter decided she wanted to watch the stars, too, so she plopped down between our heads and refused to go back inside. So Tyler, Hunter, and I laid on our blanket, listened to the crickets chirp, and watched the stars together. It was one of those spontaneous, special, fun moments I hope he will always remember.

We talked and giggled and waited. Then he saw one. And another. And another. None of them were as spectacular as the first one I saw without him, but he was pleased. We stayed out for a while and saw a handful of shooting stars. There were some clouds drifting by, but they didn't get in the way too much. It was a nice time.

After a lull, we decided to go back in and get some sleep for a couple hours. We decided we would get up around 3 and come back out to look again during the "peak" time. I woke up at 3:03. Before waking Tyler up, I decided to peak out the window first. Sadly, the sky was completely overcast and only thick clouds were visible in the sky. So much for the peak viewing time. I'm so thankful Tyler and I got to enjoy watching the stars together earlier.

(For the record, I thought Danielle would be afraid outside at night in the dark, so I didn't include her. She was really mad when she found out this morning, though!)

Happy, Happy Birthday, Baby!

"Baby" is hardly the right word to describe Danielle any more. The baby fat has melted away, and she certainly looks more like a preschooler than a toddler. But she'll always be my baby, and today was her 4th birthday.

She wanted to look at pictures from her birth day, so we spent some time doing that today. How time changes things. I had forgotten how tiny she was (6 lbs 1 oz)...how intense the feeling of love was for someone I'd just met...and how much younger we were. Ok - it was only four years ago, but we did look younger. And the other people in the pictures, they looked younger, too, if only slightly. And all those people holding her and admiring her, so unaware of the relationships they would develop with her or the impact they would have on her young life (or her impact on their lives). How can four years be so full yet go so fast?

Here are some pictures of Danielle on her birthday over the past four years:

2003 - Birth day

2004 - 1yr

2005 - 2 yrs

2006 - 3 yrs

2007 - 4yrs

Happy Birthday, Princess.