This is known as a gigantic butt flood.
Yup.
Evan made up the name.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Playthings
All Evan does these days is build airplanes. The book Super Simple Paper Airplanes (of which super simple is so not true) inspired him to go crazy. We even invested in some cool square-shaped origami paper since the book used a lot of that.
The basket beside him is full now -- this photo was from mid-May. He has since filled another basket to overflowing and also my big mixing bowl. For the boy who never throws anything away, we might have a dilemma once he has more than 200 of them....
Chloe still spends her time playing horses. She was blessed with some new bigger sized horses (at the top of the photo) which she is thrilled with. Now she's got big, medium and small horses that usually go in rotation instead of mixing them all to play with together. She uses logs, craft sticks or pipe cleaners to build pastures and stalls, then adds in pieces of playmobil food and water buckets.
We have a toybox filled with her "horse accessories" that is quickly becoming uncontainable. She's got medals for horses to wear on their necks made from string and old jewelry -- especially sparkly rings and beads. She saves pieces of ribbon and fabric and paper to use for horse blankets. There are bags full of shredded paper and easter grass and snipped up pieces of string that she uses for hay. Todd actually mentioned getting her a tackle box for all of it!
Since this is what they are into right now, we relax a bit on keeping it contained, but still....
Do you have any ideas for how to contain this stuff once we need to?
The basket beside him is full now -- this photo was from mid-May. He has since filled another basket to overflowing and also my big mixing bowl. For the boy who never throws anything away, we might have a dilemma once he has more than 200 of them....
Chloe still spends her time playing horses. She was blessed with some new bigger sized horses (at the top of the photo) which she is thrilled with. Now she's got big, medium and small horses that usually go in rotation instead of mixing them all to play with together. She uses logs, craft sticks or pipe cleaners to build pastures and stalls, then adds in pieces of playmobil food and water buckets.
We have a toybox filled with her "horse accessories" that is quickly becoming uncontainable. She's got medals for horses to wear on their necks made from string and old jewelry -- especially sparkly rings and beads. She saves pieces of ribbon and fabric and paper to use for horse blankets. There are bags full of shredded paper and easter grass and snipped up pieces of string that she uses for hay. Todd actually mentioned getting her a tackle box for all of it!
Since this is what they are into right now, we relax a bit on keeping it contained, but still....
Do you have any ideas for how to contain this stuff once we need to?
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Monday, June 13, 2011
Getting Milk
Every two weeks we are out at the farm where we get milk. We drive 45 minutes to get there, so by the time we arrive we all just want to get out and walk around. Usually the air "smells like cows" (as the kids say) but it's not too bad on this spring day.
While our farm friends fill up our milk bottles the kids greet Matey the dog and try to hunt down the barn cats. Todd and I usually check out the coolers full of pasture raised beef or cheeses. This time the kids helped us decide on a bag of cheese curds (which sounds gross in writing, but tastes something like mozzarella).
The cats were easy to find, just laying right in the open. Todd headed back outside to play with Matey -- he always gets her all wound up and then leaves the hyper dog for the farmers to deal with. So nice of him.
Evan really loves the cats. This one is Buddy -- she's the most friendly of all the kitties.
I don't often take pictures in the barn since I have to use a flash (and to me that just doesn't seem very good for the animals' eyes) but we always see or learn something new.
Evan got to see his first real live kittens. Four little newborns and their mama were way in the back stall (where Trip the horse used to live) in a pile of hay. The mama was a feral cat so we couldn't get too close, but Evan was in love. It's his dream to raise kittens someday.
Three little calves less than a month old were playing sweetly together in the side stall. There's a new one named Major in there. This time they stood mostly still and let Evan and Chloe scratch their heads instead of the usual jumping around and playing wildly.
In another large stall, a pregnant cow is still waiting to birth her baby -- she was in there last time too, so Laurie explains she's due next week and it will be her first :-) Next time we visit, we'll get to see it and learn it's name.
The cows (about thirty all together) were out to pasture when we arrived, but Mr. Gary had called them up while we were looking at the kittens. He said all we had to do was step back to the doorway and we got to watch them file into the barn one by one and head to their stalls. Evan was over the moon as Harry Ray -- the biggest bull they have -- ambled in. His back almost touched the metal bars on the ceiling!
We paid for our milk (and also our tab from last week when we forgot our milk bottles) and buckled back in for the 45 minute drive home.
On the way home we saw a family of geese, so we stopped in the middle of this country road and took pictures. We just sat there watching the geese with no cars anywhere....
We saw Marion out working in her garden. She's the sweet lady we met last year who puts all kinds of wonderful veggies at a little on-your-honor table in her yard. We always stop and buy her food. Last year she let the kids play in the leaves and then gave them dozens of cute little gourds to take home. She sells cauliflower, cabbage, winter squash... We are really looking forward to what she harvests this year.
Then as we got back on to main roads the kids let their "elephant ears" flap in the wind.
The bag of cheese curds we had bought was almost empty before we pulled in our driveway, but we were still hungry for dinner out on the deck.
On the menu: homemade granola with fresh raw milk. Yum.
While our farm friends fill up our milk bottles the kids greet Matey the dog and try to hunt down the barn cats. Todd and I usually check out the coolers full of pasture raised beef or cheeses. This time the kids helped us decide on a bag of cheese curds (which sounds gross in writing, but tastes something like mozzarella).
The cats were easy to find, just laying right in the open. Todd headed back outside to play with Matey -- he always gets her all wound up and then leaves the hyper dog for the farmers to deal with. So nice of him.
Evan really loves the cats. This one is Buddy -- she's the most friendly of all the kitties.
Evan got to see his first real live kittens. Four little newborns and their mama were way in the back stall (where Trip the horse used to live) in a pile of hay. The mama was a feral cat so we couldn't get too close, but Evan was in love. It's his dream to raise kittens someday.
Three little calves less than a month old were playing sweetly together in the side stall. There's a new one named Major in there. This time they stood mostly still and let Evan and Chloe scratch their heads instead of the usual jumping around and playing wildly.
In another large stall, a pregnant cow is still waiting to birth her baby -- she was in there last time too, so Laurie explains she's due next week and it will be her first :-) Next time we visit, we'll get to see it and learn it's name.
The cows (about thirty all together) were out to pasture when we arrived, but Mr. Gary had called them up while we were looking at the kittens. He said all we had to do was step back to the doorway and we got to watch them file into the barn one by one and head to their stalls. Evan was over the moon as Harry Ray -- the biggest bull they have -- ambled in. His back almost touched the metal bars on the ceiling!
We paid for our milk (and also our tab from last week when we forgot our milk bottles) and buckled back in for the 45 minute drive home.
On the way home we saw a family of geese, so we stopped in the middle of this country road and took pictures. We just sat there watching the geese with no cars anywhere....
We saw Marion out working in her garden. She's the sweet lady we met last year who puts all kinds of wonderful veggies at a little on-your-honor table in her yard. We always stop and buy her food. Last year she let the kids play in the leaves and then gave them dozens of cute little gourds to take home. She sells cauliflower, cabbage, winter squash... We are really looking forward to what she harvests this year.
Then as we got back on to main roads the kids let their "elephant ears" flap in the wind.
The bag of cheese curds we had bought was almost empty before we pulled in our driveway, but we were still hungry for dinner out on the deck.
On the menu: homemade granola with fresh raw milk. Yum.
Saturday, June 11, 2011
The Braids
Chloe's hair is so long now!! After going to the creek with these braids, I told her how she could have wavy hair like Livi -- her big girl friend whom she adores -- if she slept with them in (since they had gotten really wet earlier). She said she would, but she changed her mind just before bedtime so we took them out. Amazingly the next morning it looked incredible (and I took zero pictures) so we are going to do it again tonight for church tomorrow -- and I will take pictures :-)
Friday, June 10, 2011
The Poof
After I brush Evan's hair in the morning it is extra poofy.
He loves it.
He always asks me to leave it that way.
He wants to leave the house looking like this.
Of all the things I am willing to say OK to, this is not one of them yet.
Am I worried that this is somehow going to reflect on my parenting? No.
Am I concerned about the snickers and pointing fingers as he walks by someone? Yeah, sort of.
Am I wondering if I let him do it once that he will want to do it all the time and I'll never see his beautiful golden curls again? Yes!
So for now, this hair is just for home. And the blog. Ha!
He loves it.
He always asks me to leave it that way.
He wants to leave the house looking like this.
Of all the things I am willing to say OK to, this is not one of them yet.
Am I worried that this is somehow going to reflect on my parenting? No.
Am I concerned about the snickers and pointing fingers as he walks by someone? Yeah, sort of.
Am I wondering if I let him do it once that he will want to do it all the time and I'll never see his beautiful golden curls again? Yes!
So for now, this hair is just for home. And the blog. Ha!
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Twice in One Week
Earlier this week we were lucky enough to find go with some friends to a local creek we had never been to before. It was beautiful there and the kids wandered and played with friends so nicely. Too bad I forgot my camera.
But yesterday, we joined my dad and his dogs for and afternoon at Walnut Creek. And I did remember the camera. Just like at Elk Creek we found deep water, swimming spots, rapids to play on and rock piles to climb over. Here's a bit of the day:
This little toad swam up to Evan and stared at him for the longest time.
The water level was lower than usual which made a perfect day for exploring with little ones, one of whom is just learning to be braver without mom by her side the whole time.
The kids are in the bottom right of this picture collecting rocks to throw.
But yesterday, we joined my dad and his dogs for and afternoon at Walnut Creek. And I did remember the camera. Just like at Elk Creek we found deep water, swimming spots, rapids to play on and rock piles to climb over. Here's a bit of the day:
This little toad swam up to Evan and stared at him for the longest time.
The water level was lower than usual which made a perfect day for exploring with little ones, one of whom is just learning to be braver without mom by her side the whole time.
The kids are in the bottom right of this picture collecting rocks to throw.
Everything was so peaceful and pretty.
It was perfect.
It was perfect.
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