Fun at the Farm

Henry finally lost some teeth the natural way this week.  Both bottom middle teeth came out within a couple of days of each other.  He didn't even have time to be "toothless" down there because the permanent teeth had already poked through behind the baby ones.  He was happy to put his teeth in our owl.  The next morning he got money with the note, "Whoooooo lost a tooth?"  Sure beats a fairy breaking into the kids rooms at night.

One tooth lost, the other barely hanging on.

While losing teeth might mean that he is growing up, we don't have to worry too much about Henry leaving us.  At dinner one evening, the topic of marriage came up.  Henry happily announced that he and his wife were going to live with Todd and I.  I chuckled and said that his wife would more than likely not want to live with Todd and I.  She would probably want to live with just him and they could start their own family.  Henry sank down in his chair at this point.  And then we heard the tears.  He had big tears coming down his cheeks.  Todd quickly told him he could stay as long as he liked.  I reiterated that to him and he perked back up.  And I always thought President Obama was crazy to allow 26 year-olds to stay under their parents healthcare policy.

This was the week we went to Dewberry Farm with our CC group.  We were scheduled to be there from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.  It was a very long day, but a lot of fun.  We started out on the zip line.  I was really excited to try it myself.  After all the kids got a turn, the parents started to go across.  The first mom ran and jumped, and promptly hit her knees on the ground.  It wasn't hard enough to stop her momentum, but it didn't look like it felt very good.  Another mom took a crack at it, and hit her knees, too.  Then a dad tried it, and, bam, his knees hit.  It didn't look so fun after all.  It was definitely made for kids.

Next to the zip line were their Jumping Pillows.  There were three huge, rectangular pillow things to jump on.  It was basically like a bounce house without any walls and much, much bigger.  The kids had a blast.  I even got on it with Caroline "to help her out."  I got to do a lot of fun stuff under the guise of helping her out.

We moved onto pedal cars.  They were told by the attendant to ride two laps.  Josiah rode 3.  Henry, 4.  

Josiah

Henry (holding up the line).

A favorite was the Cow Train.  The boys got in barrels/bulls up at the front of the line.  Caroline and I were towards the end.  I did not account for the fact that we were on dirt roads so we had a lot of dirt in our faces for much of the ride.  It was still very fun, but at the end even Caroline said, "Dirty.  We need a bath."

the boys

From our bull.

During one of the curves, Caroline desperately tried to wave and yell to the boys.  Of course, they couldn't hear her, but it did not deter her enthusiasm. "Boys! Boys!"

After that we went down their Slide Mountain.  We each got an old welcome mat and walked up a very big hill to slide down.  I had to help Caroline, so we got to go down together.  It was one time that it was good to be heavier than the little kids.  We went fast!

We went on a tractor ride to pick our own "pumpkins."  Really, they were gourds, but they were included in the price of our field trip admission, so the kids were happy.  The tractor ride took us through their Christmas tree farm, which even on a hot day smelled a lot like Christmas.

We're getting tired!

We adults thought the Rat Racers seemed like a good idea.  The kids all piled into these giant black tubes that are usually buried in the ground (drainage pipes?).  They were to race each other down a course, but there were too many kids in each tube.  Kids were falling out and crying.  Arms got hurt, legs were hurt, feelings were hurt.  It was clear that the heat and exhaustion of the day was taking its toll.

We enjoyed a barnyard area that had a giant pig, went through a dark (quite warm) barn with a bunch of carved, lit pumpkins, had rubber duck races, and even found time to eat lunch.

We finished the day with the boys swinging on ropes from a haystack.  Caroline played on giant swinging tubes as well as a pipe slide.  She was really starting to lose it at this point.  She was desperately pleading for a nap by way of not listening and screaming, "I do it!" or "No, I go here."  We made it to 1:30 and called it quits.  Until next year.

Caroline trying the rope swing.

Henry sliding the pipe slide.  I went down this one, too.  I went fast.

On the way home, Josiah said he liked the zip line best.  Then he amended it to say, he liked all the rides where he got to sit down.

Our week ended with cow night at Awana.  Poor Josiah ran a low-grade fever that afternoon, so he couldn't go.  He asked me if I would wear his cow t-shirt and go to his class so he could get his free Chick-fil-a treat.  I told him, no, unfortunately I was not a Spark, so they would not give me the treat.  I texted Todd that Josiah wanted me to go.  Todd texted back that a good mom would go and wear the cow shirt.  "Just don't show your udders."  he said.

Henry dressed as a cow.  We ordered these shirts in "Child's Small."  Not quite.

This week at CC we start the tin whistle.  Josiah and Henry will both be playing the tin whistle for the next 6 weeks.  6 WEEKS.  Maybe they'll be tin whistle prodigies and play them beautifully.

Caroline in happier times with her hand in her cookie bag.