Day at a Different Farm

Saturday morning we went to Carol Duerksen and Maynard Knepp's farm for the annual Day On the Farm full-of-fun-fest.

Hey there, mama pig.

I took a buggy ride with the boys.

It made me wonder about a simpler way of life.

Levi climbed in the pig pen to try and catch a pig. He mostly stood there thinking he was being brave, but never actually tried to catch one of the pigs. Later he rode on a horse too.

They enjoyed riding on the wagon pulled by the tractor and the barrel rides.

Baby chicks were more manageable for Noah then pigs or horses. Just in the last few weeks, he's shown more fear of animals...I hope I'm not projecting that on him.

He loved this horse-like tire swing. It would be great to have one of these...if we had a tree to hang it on...

And this fancy lady made quite an entrance. Noah thought she was funny, especially her painted hooves - they were purple!

The boys barely ate lunch, but at least they played in the sand while Ben and I ate ours.

Our first harvest

of corn! Yes, it's true. On Thursday night, for the first time in my life I got to witness corn harvest - or picking - from inside a combine. My dad has usually just chopped corn for silage, but this year with many fewer acres of wheat in the ground, he planted a lot of corn. The acres of corn have already been chopped that will feed the cows silage for the next year. Now it's time to pick the rest!

Thursday night, dad started harvesting and so the boys and I went to check out what was going on. To our delight, we got to ride along for a while and then we stopped by the farm before heading home for the night.

Noah often tries to steer the combine himself...but with GPS directed steering dad tries to keep Noah's hands off.

There sure are a lot more buttons and gadgets in the cab then when I was little!

Back at the farm, Noah got his first chance to climb on a hay rack full of bales.

It was a beautiful evening.

We even found some loose hay to play in - fun, but plenty messy.

They love to pretend to drive the 4-wheeler.

***News flash*** I learned how to drive the 4-wheeler this weekend. I brought the boys home from the field on Friday - a nearly 4 mile trip - on my first try! It felt liberating.

I'm sure this is one of several harvest posts. Corn harvest is prettier than wheat harvest because the corn is so golden in color. The contrasting colors make it hard for me to stop taking pictures.

The End of an Era

The diapers are gone. The pacifier is gone.

It's crazy.

This summer, our little Levi has really grown up. Potty training Levi was easy. Easier then we ever thought it would be. He figured it out pretty quickly and before we knew it we were done. He even learned how to stay dry through the night! We have an occasional poop-in-the-underwear accident to deal with, but only when he's just too busy to be interrupted by a trip to the bathroom.

After our trip to Illinois, it was obvious that Levi needed to be done with his pacifier. Granted, he LOVED it. He would literally jump up and down for joy when it was time to go to bed and he could get his pacifier. So, after a lot of hype Levi put his pacifier into the trash and then helped push the trash can out to the curb. And, even though he's been sad that his pacifier went away in the trash truck, he's also done quite well without it. The amount of crying was less than we expected.

In some ways, it feels liberating to be beyond diapers and pacifiers. There's one less load of laundry every week, no more wipes, no diaper pail, no pacifier to remember to take along, keep track of, etc. But, on the other hand it's a little sad to know the baby stage is over.

It's not all bad

Many of you know that I can be pretty negative about living in town. I long to live out in the country. But, it's not all bad. Kaitlyn lives across the street from us and the boys love her. She and her older sister have babysat the boys a few times, but more often the boys go out and play with Kaitlyn (like, whenever they see her outside).

Ben, Noah, Kaitlyn and her friend Olivia played an intense game of keep-away this evening.

Noah loves these girls. He took his supper outside to eat so he wouldn't miss out on a second of the action. He ate 2 bites and said he was done. Thankfully, at snack time he ate 1 1/2 sandwiches.

Having neighbors surround us is sometimes suffocating to me. But, at other times it is life-giving as well.

Sound the Alarm

It was 10:30 at night, we hadn't heard a peep out of Noah since we put him to bed. Our latests routine is to read him several books and then let him spend some time looking at books on his own with his lamp on. He's supposed to turn his lamp off when he's sleepy. Occasionally, he falls asleep with his light on which is fine, but last night it was different. We didn't expect to see this when we opened the door to turn off his lamp:

Honestly, my heart skipped a beat. Alarm bells were going. He looked dead, you know...kinda stiff. Thankfully, he was snoring so I calmed down immediately. It was weird though. I doubt we'll ever see him fall asleep halfway through a page turn again...

Farm Visit

Our family goes out to the farm almost every week, but on Monday we took Daylon with us. Daylon is our daycare providers son and has asked for a couple years now to come out to the farm with us. Finally, it worked out.

Daylon wasn't a fan of the smells around the farm. Noah and Levi couldn't understand what he was talking about. They didn't think the cows, milk barn or alfalfa bales smelled at all.

Daylon loved his tractor ride around the farm yard. The next day when I saw him he mentioned it more than once.

Up the silage pile

Levi had to come to!

Down to play on the sand - softer on the feet and elbows.

And finally, ice cream bars for snack.

Thanks for coming out to the farm Daylon! We had fun showing you around and playing in the hot sun for a few hours.

One Hot Weekend

The first weekend in August is Threshing Days time in my small hometown. Cousin Rylee came with her moms to watch the parade and get some candy.

The boys had been anticipating this parade for days. It's really funny considering that the parade is mostly old tractors. But, old tractors are interesting to my children.

We got there just about the time the parade was starting so all the shady spots were taken. It was H.O.T. Oh my. I was drenched by the end and it was only when the parade was over that Noah noticed how hot he was.

Gotta love the band!

Ben officiated at a MAYB (basketball) tournament all weekend, so it was just me and the boys for all the festivities. I didn't get too many parade pics because of all the candy we had to pick up and watching the kids.

We headed to the Low German meal for lunch for verenike, sausage and some much needed air conditioning. We were like a 3 ring circus getting our food. Two boys, one mom, three plates, one empty stroller, three drinks, three sets of silverware and a long line of people waiting for me to get out of the way! Thankfully, we made it to our table in one piece without spilling anything.

On to the museum!

There's a wonderful kids area at Threshing Days with fun things to make, do, build, etc. My boys like to scoop corn and that's about it. When we went back on Sunday, Noah did try to learn how to make a paper boat. We watched it float for a while and then he decided to destroy it. Lovely.

We watched the threshing on Saturday and on Sunday. It was around 100 degrees out, but my boys were DETERMINED to see this. I have to admit, it's fascinating to watch and imagine how farming used to be done.

On Sunday, we stuck around long enough to watch them move this wagon over to an old-fashioned John Deere agar to move the grain into an old Ford truck. We had been outside for a good hour already and the second time a belt slipped on the agar bringing the whole production to another halt I called it quits. Noah just about lost it and I ended up carrying him to the car on my shoulders.

But, back to Saturday, I got to babysit Rylee in the evening and we had such a good time with her. She's the easiest child to care for. She pretty much kept herself busy moving items from one spot to another. When we were outside, she got out one ball after another and then she put away one ball after another.

After baths, all three kids had a snack and then Rylee went right to sleep in the pack-n-play. Love you little Rylee! Hopefully, someday we'll keep her at our house overnight. When Levi woke up the next morning he asked me if Rylee was awake yet or not and started to go look for her in the basement. :-)