Farm Fest

Last weekend there was a farm festival just outside of our city. I saw the ad in a local magazine last month and tore it out so we would remember to go. Amazingly, it was one of the few days this month that wasn't rainy, so we packed up and headed over. The kids immediately thought it was cool because we got to ride a shuttle bus to the actual festival.

There were quite a few animals to see. Kate and Ben weren't sure about these chickens, but they did like petting all of the goats, sheep, and cows we saw later.

Noah tried carding wool. Once we got to the sheep he kept petting them and saying they were so soft that he didn't want to leave.

I liked these teeny tiny honey bears. And I like how Kate wears her sunglasses over top her ears so that they'll stay up better.

Anna looks unimpressed, but the animals were her favorite part.

Well, the animals and the food trucks....

One that we ate at even had a little dining room in the back. So cute! Anna and Noah both went and told the owners how good their food was. Please ignore his cool guy face.

No line for the pony rides! Anna, Noah and Kate all took a turn, but poor Benji just stood and cried, "I want to ride but I can't!". I felt his pain. Horses are big and scary...even small ones.  

Yes, that horse is wearing scrunchies.

This little bit thought she was in the Derby. When they first stared walking her she was leaning way forward, like she was willing her horse to take off. When the lady stopped for me to take a picture, Kate smiled for 5 seconds then looked down at her horse and yelled, "Go!".

There were lots of cute booths and crafts. Mommy bought more oatmeal honey soap and the boys got wooden swords. We like to buy wooden weapons at festivals. ;)

Anna found these adorable glass bird necklaces and we let her choose one. It was hard to decide because they were all so cute, and the artist who made them came over and spent a lot of time helping Anna decide.

Her choice. She says she chose him because he will match all of her outfits.

They had a lot of fun, but it was pretty hot, so they ran eagerly toward the shuttles when we said it was time to go.

The promise of ice cream didn't hurt either.

She was only pretending to sleep here, but they all fell asleep fast after baths.

We were able to pick up lots more info on events happening around and out of town, so there's more fun to be had this summer. More, "Best day ever!" days, as the kids called this one.

We're slacking

Normally by this point in the summer, we've been to the zoo no less than 43 times. This year I think we had been twice when my sister called to set up another trip. Her kids are on more of a year round school schedule (about 8 weeks of summer but a 2 week Spring and Fall break) and they start back in just a couple of weeks, so we knew this might be our only chance. I never tell my kids until that morning, so they were very excited to see their cousins.

First stop was the splash park. When we went a few weeks ago with friends it was insanely crowded, so this time we went while it was only open to zoo members and it was much less crazy. Anna and Max made little shelves out of the fountains. Those two are two of a kind. 

Ben pointed so they all started pointing.

Speaking of Ben, when I got him dressed that morning I almost put him in a normal shirt with some stripes or something, but then I thought I may not have much longer to put him in bear shirts with no complaints.

We really did try to walk past this gorilla frame, but the boys had to jump in. Noah looks pretty big here.

But not as big as Sam, who has officially outgrown the frame in height.

Good thing we still have Mr. Tiny.

The entire last half of the zoo was leading up to their favorite, Dippin' Dots ice cream. I don't know when I'll learn that Kate can't deal with these. She lifts her spoon to her mouth, they roll off, she whimpers and tries again. She made her way through them, and I made mental notes as I cleaned her off.

Claire wised up and got the cotton candy. As long as this summer is for us, it already feels like it's going fast. Luckily we have some super fun cousin time coming up next week!

July!

Where did June go?! It seems like we've been busy and not doing much all at the same time. We're over a month into summer and I am still just loving the no homework, no uniforms, no crazy early mornings. We have 2 more months to go, so ask me again in August and I may be singing a different tune. ;)

So here's a hodgepodge of what we've been up to. So much of this has already been shared other places, but I never go back and reread Facebook or Instagram posts from years ago like I do this blog. And I do have a (very) small number of family members who read this and not the other two, so it's all new for them, right? On we go.

Last week I made this recipe and it was deeelicious. I've made cauliflower rice before and it's been good, but this one was super yummy. Also found on that site - Julia Child's house is for sale! Will someone please buy it and renovate it for me?

On a less healthy note, I made this for Nathan's 40th birthday. Chocolate espresso layer cake with peanut butter cream cheese icing. That cake plate weighed about 45 pounds. Recipe from my favorite Kentucky girl.

That morning I decided to buy candles so we could put the full 40 on there. It was pretty hilarious how the middle candles were almost completely gone by the time I got to lighting the outer rings. See Nathan smiling behind the cake?

A few days later we went out with family to celebrate Nathan, his dad, and his sister, who all have June birthdays.

We all went bowling afterward, and the kids were so fun to watch. Kate used the little kid rollie thing and Ben did at first, but soon he got the hang of throwing it on his own. Noah had his own style that I like to call, hurl it down as hard as you can and try not to kill anyone.

Early in June we celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary and Kate's first anniversary of joining our family. She's really still too little to plan out her own day, so we just did things we thought she would enjoy. Swimming at the gym pool/ splash park and ice cream.

She loves the water so much. Just seeing  her swimsuit in my hand sends her into fits of squealing and jumping up and down. Quite a change from last year. (I kinda miss that short hair she had!)

Little Chicken also moved to a big girl bed. Physically, she probably would have fit comfortably in her crib until she was 5, but she doesn't nap and we wanted her to be able to get up in the mornings when she was ready instead of waiting for someone to come and get her. I'm happy to say that the transition was completely seamless. She has slept happily in her bed all night every night and comes down the hall every morning, smiling and saying, "Look mom! Kate crazy hair!".

Most of the month has just been filled with the everyday stuff. We're still going to the library a ton. I've started to pick up a book every time I'm tempted to pick up my phone, and it's amazing how many more books I'm reading. Working on Delicious! and Interrupted (scroll down and watch those videos now!) right now, and so far I've liked the first half of Delicious! better than the second half. But I'll finish it. It's just hard to chug through something I'm not loving when my to-read list is so huge. Interrupted is really good though and falls in line with a lot of our thoughts over the last few years. Really everything Jen writes is good. I am about to quit this one though, after only a couple of chapters. I picked it up after hearing her TED talk about the 10 item wardrobe, but man...the book is so pretentious! Everyone wants to look nice, but there are bigger things in life than worrying if you're "so not chic", especially when you're reading Interrupted at the same time! I may just scan to the end and move on. Blah.

The kids finished up VBS a couple of weeks ago. This was a new one for us, since our favorite place switched to evenings. Anna had 2 classmates there and one of their moms was leading her group, so I felt okay about them going to a new place. They loved it and are already asking to go back next year.

Kate missed the age cut off by just a few months, so she got to have mommy time while the big three were there. 

We've been to the zoo with friends a couple of times.

Several splash park days.

Anna is still going with violin, and wow can she move faster through her pieces when there's no homework every day!

No homework also means we can do more as a family in the evenings. We've been spending lots of time at the pool, the gym, going on walks, making s'mores around the fire pit, etc. More than once Kate has looked like this by dinner time. She was completely asleep here, only being held up by her little toes pressed into the cabinet underneath the counter.

June was a good mix of lazy and busy and fun. We've got some fun plans for July so I'm excited to jump into this next month too. Hopefully I can pop in here again before August!