Day at a Farm and "The Magic of a Moment"

Over the summer at the beach we met a lady staying there with her grandkid and family. She invited us to this free festival they and their friends in the area put on at their farm for friends and family. They all pitch in, helping the kids with pony rides, bringing AMAZING desserts to go along with the Carolina barbecue, and other fun that you'll see. The kids loved the cow train and rode at least three times!

Nicole was so tall that she went straight through the hay maze without taking a wrong turn!

Jake got a toy water gun out of their prize bin and wouldn't let go!

Climbing piles of hay...

The kids rode ponies for the first time! All of the families were so kind and some of the kids were helping on the pony rides. Jake just enjoyed sitting still on his pony.

Mike was thrilled, grinning ear to ear. He was also stiff as a board and kept slowly tipping to one side and the lady helping had to push him upright.

Nicole was loving her ride! She couldn't figure out how to get on and swing her leg all of the way over, but she'll get it :)

The kids and I kept making sheep sounds to lure the sheep over for a pet, but apparently my "baa" was not authentic enough to get more than a strange look from the sheep. Jim and I decided we want our kids to have pet sheep someday. Not sure how, but we want to have that happen.

The kids got some feed for the donkeys and they sure liked eating it! Jake fed the donkeys the food piece by piece, enjoying all of the attention.

Then we took a ride on one of the wagons they had running out to the fields. Our cowboy looked just like Santa :)

We got into the wagon and as we rode into the fields we got to meet some new friends and everyone knew each other and usually related somehow. Jim and I enjoyed being a part of a big southern family for the day.

They had these huge draft horses brought out to till the land and give the demonstration on how things were done long ago. These horses were as tall as we were even as we sat in the wagon. Pictures don't do justice to how beautiful and magnificent they were.

Sitting behind those horses had to be one dusty job!

 

Some of the girls were riding their horses around in the corn fields.

 

More beautiful horses!

The cow train...again :)

There was a big "do not pet" on this stall. Wonder why? :)

 

We took this  pic of one end of the area set up with tables and food. Hundreds of people were served the barbecue and desserts. There were tables full of the most amazing dessert collection I have ever seen. I could have spent all day just sampling the amazing cake, pie, cookies, brownies... Local musicians entertained with bluegrass and folk music and some square dancers even performed. We had such a fun time!

 

Nicole is all into "bff"s right now. She made this card for me at church telling me I was her BFF. I put it on my mirror as one of my sweetest treasures.

Here's the final product of Nicole's entry. The theme of the competition is The Magic of a Moment, so for Nicole in her mind there is no magical moment to compare with being able to pet a unicorn (she is convinced they exist).

Day to day fun

I've been teaching Michael reading lessons from the "Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Lessons" book. It worked great for Nicole and is really easy to use. Michael needs a little more incentive to sit down in his chair (he will be so wiggly that he will literally fall off the chair with no other cause than his own wiggles!) so I discovered that he loves gummy bears as much as his dad! He is over halfway done with the book and even though I don't practice writing letters with him, he has started drawing them. As you can see here, he started writing the word 'mom' all by himself. I am careful to keep him away from permanent markers because I remember that Joe wrote "I love mom" in permanent marker on the back of the couch back in the day.

I saw this cute idea to make rainbow waffles. We don't have a circular waffle maker but the concept was still fun.

The kids loved them! Michael was convinced they had different flavors and he ate so many I was sure he would be sick, but he was fine.

My kids love crayons, paint and makers. We've gone through phases of "structured drawing" that usually turns into the phase of  "kids getting out the paint when I'm not in the room and causing major messes" to the phase of "not even a pen or pencil within reach" to the phase that "I feel bad they are deprived and get the stuff back out". Here we are in the structured drawing phase.

Nicole has been working very hard on some entries in a Reflections PTA competition that will be due Monday. She is working on a unicorn picture and also a story. Look for the finished products soon!

Halloween and Raking Leaves

 

 

Nicole was a witch with a black mole on her nose, Michael was a bee (he had this stinger on the back so he'd run around trying to "sting" you but it was hilarious watching him try to turn around and sting before his siblings could run off), and Jake Jake was a cute little cow. Jim and I did the Mickey/Minnie Mouse costumes and Diana wore the pumpkin costume my family has worn I think from Josh on down through all of the boys when they were infants. All of my kids have worn it too, but I forgot to take a picture of Diana wearing it.

 

All of the candy! They had 10 minutes of eating whatever they wanted, then we dumped it in a bowl. After they went to bed, Jim and I enjoyed some parent tax and then heard from upstairs Nicole saying "Don't eat all of the candy!" She knows us well.

Michael raked all of the leaves by himself and felt so good about it! I read this book about what a boy needs from his mother:  1. To be respected. 2. To be needed. 3. To be fulfilled. The book also talked about giving sincere, not false, praise.  I've found he is much happier and consequently behaves better when these needs are being met. For example, whenever one of Diana's toys breaks or he breaks something, Michael says "I can fix it Mom" and he is absolutely confident he can. I love that confidence and encourage him to fix things and take care of Diana's toys and he takes on that responsibility with joy. (It's very cute too :)

Jake had the small rake and mostly ran around trying to get bushes, the swingset, or his brother.