Lesson Plans

The girls love to play school, especially now that school has started. They come home, do their homework, and then head upstairs to play school. Aubrey is always the teacher. I don't really think Chloe minds because she's kept pretty busy. Right after school started, Aubrey began working on her lesson plans. She didn't show them to me until she was done. I was amazed. First, I was curious how she even knew what a lesson plan would look like. And second that she figured out what she was going to "teach" for each subject. This is definitely something that will be kept to show her when she gets older. And if she doesn't end up becoming a teacher some day, I will be shocked. :)

Fair Oaks Dairy

This past weekend we took the kids to Fair Oaks Dairy. I had bought tickets this summer through GroupOn ($24 for admission for 4) that expired September 14th, so basically we had two weekends left to use them. The drive wasn't too bad and the kids were great in the car. We got there and I ended up hitting the wrong thing on my phone and losing the tickets I had gotten through GroupOn. The lady at the front gave me a number to call, but they were of course closed on a Saturday, so we had to pay full price ($68 for all of us). I was not happy. And I learned my lesson of always printing out things from now on and not just relying on my phone. After that fiasco, we started looking around and signed up for the dairy tour. We also watched a short 4-D movie about the dairy. They had a few things to do inside and some more activities outside. Since we had almost 45 minutes before our tour, we decided to do some of the outside things before it got too hot outside. There were little pedal tractors to ride, a maze, a tractor to climb on with a slide, a trampoline that was ground level, a small train, and another jumping thing for older kids. After letting the kids play for a little while, we got on our bus for our tour of one of the dairies. It was neat to see all the feed piled up and see how their barn was set up to feed the cows. But the best part was seeing how they milk the cows on this merry-go-round type set up. It was really neat. After we got back to the welcome center, we headed to the maternity barn to watch a calf being born (the kids were excited, Cal not so much - he's seen it plenty of times). We waited and waited and waited and then finally decided to leave. (We're going to calve 12 cows this spring so I figured surely we'd just catch one of them.) As we were walking out, the lady in charge of the barn went in and helped one of the cows so we did end up seeing one being born. It was pretty cool and the calf was so cute! After that we got something to eat. The kids had a cheese quesadilla that was really good, but the best thing we had was the milk. We bought a half gallon of whole chocolate milk that was AMAZING! We drank it all! Then we had ice cream that was really good too. Once we finished all of that, Aubrey jumped on the jumping thing and the other two rode the train. Then it was time to head home. The kids had a good time, and it was neat to see, but I'm still not sure it was worth the price. Maybe for someone in the city, but it's something we see on a pretty regular basis. 

Feeling the cud inside the cows stomach

Matching up the pieces to make a cow shape

Doing a picture rubbing

Chloe too

Trying to milk a cow

Riding a cow

Coye too

Calvin tried his hand at it.

Aubrey on the pedal tractor - she was almost too big

Chloe's turn

Coye just pushed around

The girls couldn't figure out the maze, so Cal helped them. He couldn't figure it out either so I told them to just duck under the ropes.

They made it.

On the bus heading to the dairy

The "merry-go-round" that the cows get milked on.

Jumping on the trampoline

The girls

Aubrey jumping

Chloe and Coye on the train

Wedding

Last weekend Calvin's cousin got married. The girls were excited to get to go to a wedding. I'm pretty sure the last wedding they went to was Hannah's and they were only 1 1/2 and 3 at the time, so they don't remember it at all. They were pretty interested in the ceremony and how it went. Then we went to the reception and they were really curious about that. They loved watching the dances (wedding party, father/bride, mother/groom, etc.) and were slightly confused with the whole garter removal. But their all time favorite thing (at least Aubrey and Coye) was dancing. (Chloe was pretty tired so she didn't dance much.) Coye loved being out on the dance floor. They blew bubbles occasionally, which he and Eddie loved trying to pop. He also liked the disco lights that were out there too. They had such a good time. 

I was able to get a short video of Coye and Eddie dancing. Coye's in the blue shirt, Ed's in the red plaid shirt.

First Day of School

Today was the girls' first day of school - a day I've been dreading for the past month. I've loved having them home with me and was not at all ready to send them back to school today. But they were so excited and anxious to go. I can't believe that they are in second grade and kindergarten. Where has the time gone?

Swimming

We haven't swam much lately. The weather's been cool and the pool water's been cold. But mom, dad, Scott, and Jenna were here a week and a half ago so we braved the chilliness and swam a little. It was cold, but at least the pool got some use.

Coye and Papa 

He's now a little fish swimming all around (slowly but at least he can do it) with his life jacket.

She's become quite the little fishy too. 

Aubrey usually loves it - as long as the water's decently warm.

Garden

This year I finally convinced Calvin to let me have a garden again. In years past, I tried having one only to have it succumb to weeds by the end of summer. I promised him that I would keep it weed free if he would only till up a patch for me, so this spring, he tilled up a patch where the round pen used to be and planted part of it back to grass and part of it became my garden. Mom and Dad came and helped me plant it. We planted cherry tomatoes, regular tomatoes, red and green peppers, zucchini, lettuce, green beans, acorn squash, watermelon, and cantaloupe. I had to replant a few things (my beans didn't come up the first time) and I've lost a few things - Coye hoed a pepper plant and my zucchini keep dying. But all in all, I've kept it weeded and it's finally producing. I love eating fresh things from the garden!

Kids' Pictures

The beginning of June I had the kids' pictures taken. One of Aubrey's friend's moms is a photographer who actually took our big Wagner family pictures a couple of years ago. She was offering a special mini-session this summer outside at the park. I was so excited because I wanted to get some pictures of the kids outside and needed to do Chloe's 5 year pictures, Aubrey's 7 year pictures, and Coye's 2 year pictures. This worked out perfectly. The week before they got their pictures taken, it rained a ton. It ended up being wet that Saturday so we had to stay up by this brick monument, but the pictures turned out great and I was so happy with them!