Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead - Missouri Trip Day #6

After having such an awesome time here last year, the kids were pretty excited about visiting the Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead again this year.

After taking a very fast walk past the hen house...

....we stopped at Alexa's most requested activity of the entire vacation - feeding the baby goats with bottles. It was so fun to watch her face light up while feeding those baby goats.

We then bought some fish bait, grabbed a few reels and headed towards the pond stocked with small fish. All three older kids caught fish (with a little help from the adults).

Then we headed over to pony rides. It was a bit of a wait, but well worth it.

We then found a bit of space near the playground to eat a picnic lunch before Steve's aunt had to take the cousins back for their nap. We left shortly afterwards with Steve's parents, although if the kids had felt better, they would have stayed the entire afternoon.

Here's Jared turning over a stump to check out some bugs, something he found just as exciting as everything we had done earlier. I hope my kids always retain that joy in the simple things of life.

Last Day of Junior Farmers Program at the Center

Well, for our final day as Junior Farmers (May 25th) we finally received the treat we had been looking forward to for seven weeks - the pony ride! The ride had been promised from the second week, but due to weather and crowded farm days, the event had to be postponed until the last day.

Alexa and Jared both LOVED their ride on Cricket. They were the last of the ten children to ride, and I was proud at how patient they were.

Then, as if the pony ride wasn't enough, we found out we were also going to go on a tractor ride! And the kids were able to grab either a chick or duck to ride with them.

I know. Alexa's duck looks like it's being squeezed half to death. The ride was short, but that was fine by me because it was a super hot day. Plus, mid-way through the ride, Alexa's duck almost pooped all over her.

On the way back through the barn, we stopped by the goat pen. One of the mama goats, who had been pregnant the entire time we've been coming to the farm, had her twins one week ago.

On our way leaving the bathroom, one of the little boys in the group asked if we'd like to go fishing with him, his brother, and mom. It was so sweet. The kids would have really enjoyed it, but we were supposed to meet my mom for lunch. They consoled themselves with holding his pet turtle for a few minutes before we left. Now they want a pet turtle, too. We'll have to talk about that one.

I am so glad we did this program. It was about $80 per child for seven weeks, at an hour each time, so not cheap, but definitely worthwhile. There are summer, fall and winter sessions, too. Maybe we'll do this again.

A Weekend of Pretend Play, Naps and Movies

This will be a quick (well, probably not that quick!) recap of our weekend, yesterday and today.

No, I don't really tie my kids up! As you know, Jared loves Batman and all his villains right now. So, lately I've had to be Poison Ivy. He actually wants me to tie him up, drag him up the stairs to my "greenhouse," and then on Saturday, I picked herbs and other plants from my greenhouse, boiled them up, and then cooked up Batman for a Batman stew. Afterwards, we laid together and I told him a story of how I (Poison Ivy) became Poison Ivy, which I'm sure was quite different from the story made up in the comics.

So, Saturday, for the most part was a really nice lazy day. Steve made bacon and pancakes, the kids watched a Scooby Doo movie, Steve got caught with the budget, and I was able to do some reading. Steve took a nap and I feed the kids lunch, we read some more Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and then we played doctor. Alexa loved playing in the traditional way, taking temperatures, blood pressures, giving shots, and listening to heartbeats with her doctor set....

...while Jared played a little more unconventionally (he's using the injection needle as a missile below).

Later that afternoon, Steve took the kids to order storm windows for the upstairs while I took a much needed nap. For the past month, we've been constantly on the go on the weekends with family stuff, so it's been so nice this weekend to just do nothing scheduled. Later that evening we picked up some movies and a pizza, and watched Mulan. I was surprised at how much I liked it. I'm not a big animation fan at all, but it really was pretty good. Later that evening Steve and I watched The Young Victoria. Lately, I've been falling asleep in the middle of movies, but I stayed awake for this one.

Sunday was once again satisfyingly lazy. After coming home from church, we ate and took more naps (the adults, anyways!) I honestly can't remember much more that we did other than the kids watched Mulan again, and we picked up a chicken dinner from Jewel so I didn't have to cook.

Monday was a wonderful stay at home day. We didn't go anywhere. It was marvelous! I've forgotten how important it is for me to have days like this, frequent days like this, to feel sane. The kids excelled in pretend play this day.

First thing in the morning, the kids went upstairs to play music together, Jared on his drum set and Alexa on the guitar.

They haven't made concoctions lately, but Jared said he just had to make a new recipe today, so that's what he did. Here were some of the ingredients: turkey meat, water, juice, a very ripe banana, cereal, a little donut, chocolate sauce, and tied up Batman and Spiderman.

Jared's new villain costume. He calls this the Wizzar.

There was riding bikes in the sprinkling rain....

....hiding in their "cave" the sandbox...

...tracing letters (I bought her a Kumon My Alphabet Games book. She's also told me yesterday that she wants a maze book, too)

...showing me his rock collection...

...jumping on the bed...

...and giving their stuffed dog, which they named Bono, a bath.

Steve stopped home briefly to take a quick shower (he'd been playing golf all day with clients) and brought some co-workers with him. The kids were so hyper-talkative, it was funny. They usually are shy around strangers, so I don't know what brought this on. At one point, one of the men asked Alexa how old she was. "Four," she says. "Oh," he says, "so you'll be going to kindergarten next year then, right?" She thinks about this for a minute. "I don't think so," she says. "When I get older, I'm going to heaven. Heaven is a wonderful place because that's where Jesus is." 

I can't believe we did this, but we watched two movies in a row - Scooby Doo and the Samurai Sword, and the Wizard of Oz.

Today was our Junior Farmers program. We had a lot of baby holding from chicks, to ducks to bunnies.

And before we left, they asked to run up the stairs and across the bridge.

When we got home, we had lunch and I read two more chapters in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Violet just turned into a blueberry. I checked some e-mails and blogs while I ate, and the kids got into a lot of mess. I thought they were just giving their pretend dog a bath again, which they were doing at first, and used a half bottle of conditioner to do it, but then they drifted into my bedroom, quickly got my nail polish and mascara and painted "masks" all over their bodies. While I cleaned them off and the mess in the bathroom, they watched a little of Arthur and Word Girl on PBS.

After that they painted two water color pictures a piece. Alexa is now using the hair dryer to dry her dog, and Jared is lining up all his weapons on his bed. And I need to sign out because I'm being called to play the Joker.

The Farm, Butterflies & Batman's All Tied Up

We woke up Tuesday the 11th to gray skies. The kids knew that probably meant no pony ride today at the farm, something they were really looking forward to. But I think they brightened up some when they saw the fluffy one-week old baby chicks. They looked just like the stereotypical Easter chicks you see in the pictures. The kids sat around a small table and pet their chicks while Ms. Kay talked about why chicks and ducks have different types of feet.

We grabbed our umbrellas and headed to the barn. Although we didn't go in the pigpen this week, I still had to include a picture of this cute little guy. We spent most of the time in the barn in the goat pen, feeling the mama goat side and hoping she'd have her babies in the next two weeks so we could see them before the end of this program. It was also fun to check out the stables and go inside the horse's stall.

Before we left, we took some tiny duckling out of the incubator and held them. I almost forgot. In the barn, the hens had laid three eggs, so Ms. Kay took one of the hens and put her in a separate area. She had all the kids carry handfuls of hay and make a nest for the eggs, and then she put the eggs inside the nest. Next week we're going to see if the hen actually sat on the eggs and will hatch them. 

We stopped by my mom's house afterwards for lunch, and so I could work on this blog for a while. The kids always love to feed Teddy, my mom's dog, her Cherrio treats. They like watching her perform her tricks. The kids and my mom went to their library, where they checked out some new books, and then came back for an ice cream cone treat. My mom left for work, and the kids played store with my grandma. She was the customer and they were the shopkeepers.

We we arrived at home, we were SO excited to see two more of our butterflies had hatched. As I said in the last post, as of this date they all have hatched, so we have 9 total. The kids asked to feed them this time. We sprinkle sugar water over a flower, and I also soak a paper towel in sugar water, too.

Before Steve came home for dinner, we had some pretend Batman play. Lately, Jared's taken to tying up his Batman with string and hanging him from the umbrella. Later that evening, he wanted me to play Batgirl. He showed me how he had tied Batman up. I though he wanted me to rescue him. Apparently not. After I untied Batman from the umbrella and showed Jared, he burst out into the most sorrowful sounding cry I'd ever heard from him and ran upstairs, where he wouldn't be consoled. Now I know. With Batman play, you must do it exactly how he wants, my own thoughts and ideas are not required, thank you very much. Kind of reminds me of this book I received for Mother's Day :)

Farm and the Library

Our Junior Farmers Program at the Center in Palos Park has been just wonderful. The first three classes Jared was very clingy. In fact, I had to carry him for most of the time. But he's beginning to warm up and while he doesn't talk with the other kids, he doesn't hang on me that much either.

On the 4th a woman in the class who has recently hatched baby ducks brought them to class. I think they're a week old. We really want to do this next spring when we can buy and incubator. It was soo adorable to watch the baby duck swimming around in the pool for the first time. They didn't really like the water that much, yet.

Someone left a baby gosling at the farm, so we all took turns holding its fuzzy body. It was amazingly soft.

Ms. Kay showed the kids how chickens take a bath by flapping around in the gravel. Hmm. Something I didn't know either. We met a girl, who was probably around 10 or 11, who helped with our group. Ms. Kay made it a point to tell us she is home-schooled so she has time to help out on the farm. It was nice to talk to a girl who seemed so self-assured and said she really loved being home-schooled. I don't know if she is able to be a self-directed learner, but it looks like she at least has the freedom to participate in program like these for long periods of time during the day.

After the farm, we drove over to my mom's house. She only lives about 5 minutes away, so it's a great chance to see her, my dad, and grandma. Also, my mom usually does something fun for a few hours with the kids while I get a chance to work on this blog, practice my Greek or even do a little reading.

This day my mom and grandma took the kids to the library near their home and to the park next door. She took my camera, so I'll just let the pictures below speak for themselves.

And the ended the day with their grandma and great grandma their favorite way - with an ice cream cone!