Homestead Creamery Farm Day

My absolute favorite fall activity here in Virginia is the annual Homestead Creamery Farm Day. I look forward to it all year long. And I make sure we have no commitments that would be a conflict that first weekend in October because I do not want to miss it. 

They have so many wonderful activities for the kids at this event, and the weather has always been picture-perfect for fall. You can milk a cow, make your own butter, go on a hay ride, pet the animals at the petting zoo, play corn hole, enjoy great food (including the BEST. DONUT. EVER!), ride the trackless train pulled by the tractor, watch a blacksmith, taste-test chocolate and strawberry milk (not to mention egg nog and fresh lemonade) that the creamery sells, and watch apple-butter being churned right there on the spot. Every year I leave thinking, "Yep. It is just as good as I remembered it being last year!" =)

Cows and Tractors

Jerry's dad arranged for us to visit a friend of his who has land with cows and a tractor. The boys liked the cows – mostly at a distance. LOL! They also rode the tractor, which surprised me. I thought the noise would scare them off, but they were brave as could be.

Petting the cows

Feeding the cows

Alex riding the tractor

Roo rode in my lap.

He did great - just sat there and watched while we rode through the field.

Alright. Who wants to roam free?

Poor little guy got bitten by a mosquito right on his eye. That eye was so swollen. =(

A tiny little super hero

Weighing in at just over 21 pounds at 16 months, this little guy is barely on the charts in the 6th percentile! Still, dynamite comes in small packages. So don't let his size fool you – he can definitely hold his own and keep up with the best of them. And if you ask him, he's every bit of the three years old that Alex is!

The park at Hideaway Lake

The boys love the park at Hideaway. We spent one morning there when we stayed at Noni and Pop Pops and the boys had a blast on the slides and the merry-go-round. We also searched for doodle bugs that morning, but they wouldn't come out of their "nests."

Activity Time

We dyed rigatoni noodles and made a noodle necklace.

I put tape on one end of the yarn so that it would be easier for him to thread it through the noodle. We also worked on color patterns: blue, red, yellow, green.

A "Speed rocket" made during play doh time.

Working fine motor skills: grabbing letter beads with tweezers and putting them in different slots in the egg carton.

Letter recognition/matching: finding the correct letter bead and matching it to the letter written on the index card after reading a bible story using those words.

Little Clowns

A Sweet Little Love

Do you see this cutie-pie?

Miss Blayklee Teal is my niece and the newest addition to our family. She is such a precious bundle of joy.

We aren't the only ones who are smitten with this little lady. She has my brother totally wrapped around her teeny-tiny finger.

He has always had dreams of being a family man. A husband and daddy. His dreams have come true in ways I would venture to say are far beyond anything he ever could have imagined for himself. It's one of the things I find so amazing about our good God – He often works things out in ways that are bigger and better than we can dare to dream.

Small fish in a small pond

We went to Texas recently to celebrate the birth of my brother and sister-in-law's baby (more on that soon). While we were there, Alex participated in The Cherokee Club children's fishing tournament.

The tournament was well done. They had cane poles set out every few feet for the kids, and there were volunteers on hand to help bait the hooks with the meal worms they provided. The volunteers also took the fish off the hooks and threw them back in the water for the kids. It was turn-key.

Alex caught three very small fish and then was ready to call it quits.

Roo was busy searching for rocks and throwing them into the water. That's what Alex really wanted to be doing, too.

 Alex did manage to bring home a little trophy. Him and about 20 other little fishermen and women. ;-)

While the trophy was ok, what Alex really wanted was the doughnut.

He and Roo stuffed their faces.

In addition to the doughnut, Roo was eyeing Ganny's drink. =)

 

We'll have to see if Alex warms up to fishing a little more, but something tells me that this probably will not be his sport. ;-)