The Linda Family

Yesterday was Ashleigh’s first school field trip. She was supposed to go to Port Discovery last month, but it was during the week she was out sick, so she missed the trip. Yesterday’s trip was to North Run Farm. It was a bit chilly, but thankfully not raining (like it is today, the day the 2 yr olds from her school go!).

I hadn’t planned on going on the field trip, Ash didn’t seem like she needed me there and I didn’t think a chaperone with a baby in tow was what the school really wanted. Tuesday morning she started panicing that she would be taking the bus to their trip and I would not be there. So, I emailed her cottage director. I was told that I was more than welcome to join them, but there was probably not room for me on the bus. I was to follow the bus in my car. PERFECT! I’ll be there to get her on and off the bus, I can enjoy the time with her, but when the trip is over, I get to go home! Plus, no bus full of noisy 4 yr olds!

The farm truly is a farm. They grow hay and feed corn as their main source of income. They also grow pumpkins and gourds. They are only open to the public for 8 weeks a year, and most of their customers are schools. We started with a tour of the “barn” where they sell the produce. We were shown several varieties of pumpkins and we talked about the difference between feed corn and the corn we eat.

Next stop was the animals. They only have 5 animal pens, the cows, the chickens, the goats, the pigs, and the sheep. The cow they have is a beef cow, not a dairy cow. The past 3 years she has had twins. The twin calves were only 3 weeks old, and we got to see them walking around and nursing. It was adorable. The goat also had twins, the kids were 3 months old. One of them was nursing when we first walked up, but they were startled away when 20+ kids came running at them!

The sheep, pigs, and chickens were also fun to watch. We learned that pigs like pumpkins. They were “yelling” at the farmer’s wife when we had our tour because she didn’t bring them a pumpkin. The kids really seemed to enjoy the animals.

Next stop was the hay ride. We went on a short hay ride down the field. We went past the pumpkin patch and the corn maze. It was a short little trip, but the kids enjoyed it. When we got back the kids got to find a small pumpkin from the pumpkin patch. They go through the patch in the afternoons and cut off the orange ones so the kids just have to find the pumpkin that is sitting next to the vine. Ashleigh picked a perfect little pumpkin! It’s bright orange and perfectly round. It’s sitting on the front steps getting us ready for fall.

Next up was the corn maze. The farmer’s wife led us through part of the maze (the whole thing was WAY too long for the kids). She showed them the roots of the corn and told them what animals eat feed corn. We learned that chickens, cows, and pigs all like the corn, but it is VERY bad for horses. More useless facts to add to a little corner of my brain.

We brought the kids lunches for them to enjoy at the farm, so after the corn maze we sat down at the picnic tables and let them eat. When they were done they got to play on the play area. They had a tire park, a mini corn maze (using bales of hay and big tubes), a hay area to climb on, a tipi made with corn stalks, and a corn box. A what? A corn box. There is no sand on the farm. Really, it’s an AWESOME idea. They took old tractor tires and buried the bottoms of them, and filled them with the kernels of feed corn. The kids climbed right in to play with shovels, buckets, rakes, and corn. They didn’t come home all dirty and sandy! It was great.

It was a chilly day, so Bekah and I came home and warmed up, but Ashleigh had a blast, Bekah was a good sport, and overall it was a good day!

I have some pictures, but the picture software isn’t working properly, for now you’ll have to check them out on Facebook

Ashleigh has always been a smart cookie. No one gets much past her. I’m pretty sure we were reminded of that again this week when we were thinking about a trip to Rita’s. This morning, while Ashleigh enjoyed her breakfast, she asked to watch a TV show. When the TV came on, it was already turned to Discovery Kids and The Magic School Bus was on. We LOVE the Magic School Bus. It’s a good educational show, and it reminds me of elementary school when we used to watch it in school! Aaahhh…Nostalgia. The one downside to Discovery Kids vs Noggin or Disney? Commercials. Now I love that we will never get a glimpse of Hannah Montana or The Wizards of Waverly Place when The Magic School Bus ends, but Ashleigh LOVES commercials which makes me a little nuts.

During one of this morning’s commercial breaks the commercial for The Sunsetter Awnings came on. Now I would assume this commercial was geared for the parents who are watching Saturday morning TV with their kids. In this household? In this household Dad is in the Dining Room working, Mom is focused on the baby, and the 4 year old is ready to sign on the dotted line. The conversation went something like this –

Ash: Look Mom, It’s only $700 for the Sunsetter Retractable Awning.
Me: That’s nice. I don’t want a Sunsetter Retractable Awning.
Ash: But I do. Sometimes I get hot outside.
Me: [laughing out loud] WHERE did we get you kid??

Talking about the marketing department’s ideal customer. This kid saw the commercial, heard them say you can get a SunSetter for under $700, and when I said I didn’t want one, she gave me a benefit of them. The commercial tells you that the awning will help cool your patio by up to 20 degrees by blocking out the sun. I’m sure it’s just a matter of time until she has the whole Feature, Advantage, Benefit selling technique down. I can just picture it now…. “Mommy, look at this amazing Sunsetter Awning. It is retractable, so that we only need to put it up when we want it. The best part? It only takes 60 seconds to open. With the Sunsetter open, our patio will be cooler, enabling me to play outside for longer periods of time. Don’t you want me to be able to play outside on hot days and stay out of your way?” The only thing missing would be if she ended it with, “Is there any reason you wouldn’t buy us a SunSetter awning today?”

The commercial just came on again. She saw it, and went running in to Wes to tell him that he can get a SunSetter for only $700. I, of course, am sitting here laughing. He just asked her if I sent her to tell him that. Nope. She then explained to him that it cools off the patio, and she gets hot playing outside. Man, we are SO in for it…

We’ve been talking about it for months, finally settled on a school 2 months ago, planned to start her May 1 and yet here we are in late June.  It’s finally time.  All of our ducks are in a row and Ashleigh is officially a student in the Rain Forest Cottage at the Young School.  She’ll be attending school 2 days a week, Tuesday & Thursday.  We can drop her off any time after 7 AM and pick her up any time before 6 PM.  If she gets there before 8 (NOT likely) they have a “breakfast club” so the kids can enjoy breakfast together.

Her day will most likely start at 9 AM most days.  During the summer session her group will be doing water play from 9:30 – 10:30, so she will get plenty of outdoor time!  She is even excited about her “nap time” at school!  They do naps from 1 – 3, but if the kids are up at 1:30 they go to another activity, so they are not forced to lay there for 2 hours if they don’t sleep.

I’ve spent the past week getting everything ready for her to go to school.  She needed 2 extra outfits to keep in her backpack at school, 2 bathing suits, 2 beach towels, a lunch box, water shoes, and bedding for her cot.  We finally found water shoes last night on our trip out to find Sunbutter so I can make her a sunbutter and jelly sandwich for lunch.  I tried making a cream cheese and jelly sandwich, which is a trick I learned from other moms with kids in schools where all nut products are off limits, but Wes told her it was strange, so while she liked it at first, she decided it was yucky when Daddy told her it was weird.

Ashleigh woke up bright and early this morning to get ready for school.  She had her new bunny cereal, got dressed in her bathing suit, let Daddy put her sun screen on her, put on her clothes over her bathing suit, and let me put her hair in a pony tail.  I even surprised her with a Princess Lunch box, despite the fact that I still think it’s ugly.  It does hold more food than the other one I had found…

I had a knot in the pit of my stomach the whole way to school, but she did great.  We met her teacher, Ms. Crystal, and chose her activity station for the day.  This week’s theme is Camping & Fishing, and she chose the Arts & Crafts activity station.  Some other options were construction, dramatic play, & Science.  She came home with 4 cool crafts.  Two paintings, a pair of toilet paper roll binoculars, and a fish on a fishing pole.  She is thinking about which activity station she wants to do on Thursday.

She had a blast at school, she did make a friend, but she can’t remember the girl’s name.  She said she couldn’t sleep during nap time because it was too noisy, and she didn’t want to get really wet in the sprinkler, so she just got her hands wet.  What a kid.  We do have a few cute photos, and I’m hoping to get a first day of school recap video from her, but there wasn’t time.

We asked her this morning what she wanted to have for dinner to celebrate her first day of school.  She said she wanted Rita’s.  When we pryed for food to eat BEFORE Rita’s she decided she wanted mac & cheese, so instead of going out, I went to the food store for some cows milk on the way to get her so that I could make her some mac & cheese.  After I picked her up, we went to get Wes, came home and made dinner, and headed to Rita’s.  Came home and played a quick game of Mario Kart and off to bed she went.

I’ll get some pictures up tomorrow.  Hopefully a video from her as well.  I didn’t want to keep everyone waiting!

Ashleigh is enjoying the craft projects she has collected pieces for over the past year. I’m getting over my fear of being messy and we’re working on projects. The most recent was the flower pots she made for Nana, Grandma, and Aunt Beth…They turned out pretty stinking cute if I do say so myself! She painted the wooden stick shapes and we stuck them in some florist’s foam in a flower pot and covered it with Spanish Moss. She also painted some for me, but we haven’t gotten mine assembled yet.

Take a look at her cute creations!

We’ll have to see what project we come up with next!

Ashleigh had been making plans for months…For quite some time she has been telling me she wanted a Princess Crown birthday cake. As her birthday was approaching, and I was still recovering from Bekah’s birth the task of actually having a birthday party seemed a little daunting to me. I tried to convince Wes that April would be a better month, it would be spring time and we could have fun outside. Unfortunately for me, he didn’t go for it

We started talking to Ashleigh about her birthday party and she decided that she wanted a Princess party like her friend Mia had last fall. Upon further discussion she realized that she really wanted a prince and princess party so that her friends who are boys could come and have a good time. She made her guest list and we sent out the invites, and started to plan what we could do to have all of her friends here and make it a Royal Gala.

I tried to go simple, but really, if you know me, you know there’s no simple anything….With the help of my mom we made up some great goody bags with tiaras, lip gloss, Disney Princess Crayons, Disney Princess Fruit Snacks, and a necklace & bracelet set for the girls. The boys were ready to be Knights in Shining Armor with Chest Plates & Swords, and they also went home with Spiderman Crayons, the same fruit snacks, and a card game. While everyone arrived we had some Disney Princess Movie music playing and the kids had fun dancing around the living room. Once the majority of the guests were here we moved into the dining room for BINGO. I had intended to make BINGO cards so that I could use Disney Princes and Princesses (because the commercial ones are only Princesses). Unfortunately I had a heck of a time trying to find pictures of Princes and the images were all completely different sizes and it was totally overwhelming.

I had pretty much given up on the BINGO game and was trying to find something else that I could do instead when I found a BINGO card generator on a website that is full of homeschool materials. It was amazing. I was able to choose the size of the cards, whether I wanted words or pictures, and then I chose a theme. I chose the midevil theme and we played BINGO with knights, princesses, mermaids, suits of armor, and all sorts of princessy stuff! Perfect!

The next “project” was Princess Clay. I think the kids enjoyed it. I whipped up a batch of homemade play-doh and the kids got to choose their coloring (kool-aid) and mix that into it, as well as some glitter, for the Prince/Princess effect. It was messy, but not that bad. They had a good time and I just wiped down the table when they were done. We also played “pin Cinderella in her castle”. Well, it was more like stick Cinderella in her castle. The kids had fun, several of them took two turns.

For lunch I tried to go healthy. We had sandwichs, PB&J, tuna salad, and chicken salad. The PB&J were cut into stars, hearts, and flowers. We had veggies and dip, fruit salad, and some chips & pretzels to go with it. I had a bunch of Capri-sun Juice pouches we had never consumed, so we served those as well. The kids all seemed to be happy and full when they left the table.

The cake was Ashleigh’s favorite part. With all the time I put into it, she sure better have enjoyed it! It actually was not as bad as I expected, I just forgot that I had an infant to care for as well as make the cake. Next year it will be easier! She chose the Wilton Castle cake pan for her cake. I had never made flowers before, but I found it was surprisingly easier than I expected.

By the end of the party I was ready to lay down for a bit and take a nap, though that could have been caused by the fact that I wait until the last minute for everything and therefore only got 3 hours of sleep the night before her party…but hey, it all got done and everyone had fun! Thankfully I have some great friends who helped along the way!

After the party was over we relaxed for a bit and took some photos before Celebration #2 started. Nana arrived, then cousin Virginia and Dave, then Aunt Beth, and eventually Uncle Roy. Aunt Beth brought a ton of great stuff and we spent the latter part of the afternoon redecorating Ashleigh’s room. You’ll have to wait for the next blog post for that, but for now…Enjoy the party photos