Pictures from the farm

This morning we took a road trip with one of Oliver's friends to a working dairy farm about 80 miles from our house. It was such an incredibly fun morning! The best part was that Dennis was able to take the day off and come with us. :-)



I have a habit of constantly hitching up my pants, and now apparently Buttercup has a similar problem . . .





This was the most interesting chicken I've ever seen!


All of the little baby cows, waiting to be fed.







Buttercup giving her daddy the stink eye.


This pig was huge! She probably weighs between 700 and 800 pounds.



The kids got to milk a cow!



Even the big kids had a turn.


The cow was unimpressed.


Inside the milking area. You can't tell in the picture, but there were approximately 9,872 flies constantly buzzing around us. We were all glad to leave.


Entering the maze toward the end of our morning.


Cute Shetlands who watched us eat our lunch. My friend brought an apple to eat and they followed her around the deck, looking longingly at it. :-)


Pumpkins! And chickens!


Another fun day for us!

It's Fall!

It's mid October, and we're finally starting to get some cooler weather after another loooong, hot summer. Let me tell you, it is so nice to be able to play outside in the afternoon again. :-) We still have a lot of 90 degree days in our forecast, but the hint of cool weather is enough to get me in the fall spirit!

Here are the kids at a pumpkin patch:






Theodore refused to bend his knees and sit on the pumpkin, ha ha!


We also did a test run of the kids dressed in their Halloween costumes. Here's Theodore as Yoda:


And here's Oliver (as Commander Cody), Theodore (as Yoda), Aunt Anna (as herself), and Buttercup (as Thomas the train):


We've also done some fall themed crafts. Here are the kids' leaf suncatchers (Oliver's is on top, Buttercup's is on the bottom):



And we also made bat headbands (Buttercup's on top, Oliver's on bottom):



Yay for fall!

Three years old

Buttercup is 3 years old today!! She's been wanting to turn 3 for such a long time, and she was so excited this morning! I asked her what she really, really wanted for her birthday, and she said that she wanted to be a boy. Ha ha!! So, I obviously couldn't make that happen, but I think she liked her gifts and had a great day after all. :-)

Happy birthday, Buttercuppie!!

Tie dyed milk

Today the kids and I tried something that I've been meaning to do for a while. A month or so ago, my friend Shelly sent me a link with a really cool milk and food coloring experiment, but I forgot about it and ended up losing the link. I remembered about it again this week and looked it up online, and thankfully there were a lot of websites with information about it! Here's one.

The kids and I didn't get into the specifics of why or how this experiment worked, we just enjoyed playing and watching the pretty colors. :-)

To do this, you'll need a shallow container (like a tupperware lid), some milk, food coloring, dish soap, and a couple of toothpicks.

Fill the bottom of the container with milk, then add drops of food coloring:


This is Oliver's first batch:


Dip a toothpick in dish soap, and stick it in the food coloring. This is what happened!


This is what it looked like after Oliver stirred it up:


Oliver's second batch:


He got tired of stirring/poking and started blowing on it instead: :-)


After Buttercup woke up from her nap, it was her turn! Her colors:


Fun!






We are definitely doing this again! :-)