Friends are like Hot Tea

I love hot tea. Matt calls hot tea and hot drinks that we love, a hug in a mug.

After Matt's man trip I needed out of the house! Just kidding. I was waiting for a chance to paint pottery with my cousin. Jenny and I are cousins on my mother's side of the family. We played all through childhood. I smile because Jenny was one of those younger cousins that would try to tag along and just slow us down. Ha Ha... now that we are adults I love hanging out with her.

We always say how we will call and make plans and then a month goes by and we still haven't done anything. Enough is enough. We made plans to paint and relax and catch up.

I got an Earth and Fire gift certificate in my stocking and just now made time to cash it in...

Jenny painted a present for her ****** I can't tell who gets this Christmas gift.

I made a ladybug box for Addie. Also a Christmas present.

We had  a great night. We will do more of this for sure.

Corbin's friend Tayden invited us to celebrate his 5th birthday. We had so much fun. The kids and I along with our tag a long Eli Guernsey made our way over to the Rader home prepared to have a blast. That is exactly what we did. Marianne had these carnival games. They decorated bags to take along with them as they collected prizes at each station. So clever and the kids loved it.

She had popcorn and finger foods. Ramsey popcorn is now my favorite!

The kids also got to choose face painting. Some of them chose scary things.

Corbin chose to be a tiger

He was so patient and still.

Here is my cool cat

Tayden and Corbin are the same age now. Micah (Taydens little brother) and Adaline are the same age. I would say Micah and Addie are best buddies.

It ended up being too Windy outside to have candles.

Tayden took a couple of blows and out they went. Four years gone. Bring on number five.

All of the kids wanted to be right up front in all the action.

Eli chose the Angry Bird on his hand.

Aiden and Corbin played cat and mouse quite well.

Then of course princess Addie wanted pink. Pink butterfly

This was the year of the weapons. Everyone had gotten him guns or fight toys. We had gotten Tayden a bow and arrow and a Robin Hood Hat.

"I am so happy with this pink butterfly face".

The end of our party and Corbin really doesn't want to go.

What a fun day with friends

Heritage Days 2012

So my mother says that dad "is ate up" over Lanesville Heritage Days. Dad goes every day of the event and loves to look at each tractor, see all the saw demonstrations, and walk by every booth. Truth be told he probably tastes quite a few sandwiches and lemonades over those few days as well. I enjoy our time there but as we have had little ones it just isn't the same. We are now at the ages where I can't avoid the ride section and not hear about it. I say I have done pretty good at that though. Five years.

So, I didn't think that I would go this year since Matt was out of town. I called a few friends to go with us and that didn't quite work out. I was resigned to not going this time. But mom called to see if we would go with her after she got off work. There was an essential oil booth that made lotions and stuff.

Sure! We would love to go. Actually she is much better to go with than Matt. As a mother she knows exactly what I need and want to do with the kids.

Addie is always excited to see what is in store for us each day.

She wants to show you how a princess holds her skirt. Addie has to wear skirts at each possible moment. This cool weather may be hard on her. We will have to do tights.

Heritage was a hit with the kids. I tried to be proactive with our budget and made dinner in the crockpot for our return. I packed a water bottle, snacks and suckers for those moments when they would want something. This worked out great.

Here are the munchkins. We had also taken those packs with a leash. This was perfect since us adults were out numbered. Corbin still will dart after something without thinking about where we are. He would have been smooshed by the tractor shuttle at the end without this leash. And being a Saturday it was packed.

We agreed to do two rides each. This was their together pick

This was Addie's pick. She wanted the scrambler. See her tiny self by me.

She giggled and squealed the whole time.

Corbin had his sights on something much bigger. He loves the tall mega slides.

I told him to wave at the top for me to take his photo. He laughed when he saw me and said, "ha, I didn't wave at the top." He thinks he is so funny.

This little guy had a great time.

I didn't want to battle the stroller and the crowd so I carried Aiden in the sling. He loves being close to his mama, but really liked walking in the grass too. Aiden is already pulling up on the couch at home and walking around things. What a smiley boy he is!

Any Given Sunday

Well, Matt had left on his "Man Trip" and we were together for six days without him. It looks like everyone is okay.

Matt went on the Pacific Ocean Trail north of San Fransisco. They hiked 25 miles in three days and saw lots of wildlife.

Matt nearly drowned in the ocean. A rip tide was pulling him under, but God's hand literally pushed a wave and him upon the shore.

They saw a bear on the beach far below them. They also were 12- 15 feet behind a huge male elk. Loads of elk to walk around he said. The males were rooting and this made them testy.

Josh got poison ivy terrible bad.

They had a great time. and somehow I survived being a single mom of three. I put Corbin our kindergartner on the bus, made lunches and dinners. I bathed and bed the kids nightly. I nursed and watched our 9 month old baby. I played and supervised our three year old princess. Sat we went to Lanesville Heritage with my mom/ Nana and Sun. we went to the Murphy farm/ grandma and grandpa.

These are the only two pics at the Murphy's. You can see the kids running out to get the sheep.

Here the sheep come running from the kids along the fence. The sheep are quite scared of the kids although Addie is shorter than the tops of their heads. They tried to pass  Addie along the path in the barn and in their panic one jumped over her. This shocked her and caused her to cry.  The sheep are always fun to see.

We had lamb stew for dinner. Yummo! So, this was not any given Sunday as nothing goes this way normally.

Goats and Cheese

My sister who loves animals and is really good with them, is working at a goat farm in Greenville near her house. She had offered for our family to go one night and see her and the farm and let the kids come and see the kids. ha ha

Well, not thinking Matt would go with me. And not wanting to do this alone I had hesitated. My Aunt was also invited and thought it would be good for us to do this trip together. Great plan!

With all the excitement and plans Matt didn't want to be left out so he decided to go after all.

The first group of goats that we saw were teenagers who were not milked or bottle fed so we had no dealings with these guys.

Addie is such a precious girl. She just oooed and awwwwed over every single goat. "It's so koot." She would say with this sweet tilt to her head. (cute-for those needing a translation)

When we walked into the barn Liz was full tilt into her milking. This is a goat cheese farm with about 400 milking goats! Can you believe it! Milking 400 goats twice a day. Lizzy does the evening shift about four nights a week.

The goats were very interested in the party of on lookers tonight. (that would be us). But they just stood there and relaxed for their milking. The goats are milked in groups. They are tagged if they are on medication or if they have newborns, and a few other details so that their milk is handled properly.

Here is one of the mamas. Can you see her two baby bumps? Goats usually have two to three kids at  a time. We were lucky to see brand new babies that were only three days old. And Liz said that the next night a couple of the goats had babies.

This is the large space where groups of goats were to go through on the way to milking. In front of Corbin is the large male. King of the empire here. I am not sure how many males there are but he was rather excited and would jump off the wooden slats on the wall into the air and run around his pin.

Corbin and Addie wanted to get in the pin right away and pet the goats. Lizzy's only warning was that they might try and eat your shirt.

I think that this one did try a nibble of Addie's shirt.

Well, don't be afraid. Can you tell that Corbin is super cautious.

Aunt Terri was Aiden's tour guide and he loved being held and cooed over. Terri and I were joking about her "Ralph Lauren" rubber boots that she wore out to the farm. Terri is now a city gal. Dad and his siblings lived on the Ohio River off hwy 111 as small children.

 The kids started to relax and warm up to the goats.

 Addie is just so happy to pet them.

Notice that the goats are just as tall as she is.

Woah now, I think I am getting a little too close

These are the new babies that are only three days old.

We will come back and bottle feed these guys later

 Here is my little farmer girl. She had so much fun.

Matt talked the kids into letting the kids suck on their finger. They just giggled and giggled at the feeling.

Now these kids are a couple of weeks old and can feed out of the bucket now.

I thought this was so clever.

This was such fun watching the kids play together. They would run around together and chase each other.

See the children's slide outside? The goats love to jump and play on this equipment too.

Headed back to feed the newborns

It takes Liz about an hour to feed the 12 newborns by hand. She was much more efficient than us.

Corbin had fun but  you could tell he wanted to watch everything first.

Of course Matt has had animals around him his entire life. He raised cows, pigs, chickens and house pets as hobby farmers. He has no fear of animals. I try and let the kids see that and not influence them with my stand offish behavior toward animals. I don't get into them like they do.

But here I am. I did help feed the babies. I spilled milk all over my leg and sat in milk on the bucket. But we had a great time. Everyone loved seeing the whole operation at work.

So have you ever tried goat cheese? I am not a fan. I love goat milk, wish we could get some closer to us.