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Happy Family Times #4

We are having beautiful weather this week so on Saturday afternoon when Daddy returned from hanging with the guys, we decided to go get some ice cream. We have a local place, Richardson's Ice Cream,  that makes homemade ice cream and sells their own milk. They have cows and other animals as well. We headed there. It takes 15-20 minutes to get there and tired Hazel fell asleep in the car, but we woke her when we got there.
Hazel wanted an ice cream cone, so she got one. I think this is the first time I have seen her eat an ice cream cone. I'm not sure if my mother-in-law has given them to her or not though. She made a bit of a mess around her face, hands and shirt, but had fun. She didn't want it all so Daddy ate the rest of it. After eating the ice cream we headed over to see the cows and animals.
They have a fenced in section right behind the ice cream stand/market where they have the older calves. It was a bit crowded there so we headed over to see the baby ones first.

The babies have their own little houses and have a section where they stay for the first eight weeks (I think that is what the sign said). Then a small part of their area has the chickens and turkeys. The rooster was roaming free around the cows and outside the hen house.
Daddy finished his and Hazel's ice cream and joined us while we were looking at the birds.

The crowd that was at the older calves came over so we switched spots with them and checked out the older ones. They also had some goats (looks likes kids to me) there.
Then we headed over to the cow barn. The first part is reserved for the very pregnant cows who will give birth in the next few weeks.
Then there are the rest of the adult cows. Most of them seemed to be sleeping.
Then we headed back to see the babies and chickens.

And the male turkey was out strutting himself to impress the female.

We looked for a quarter so Hazel could feed the animals, but we didn't have any. Oh, well. Next time. It was a fun family time and we always love their ice cream!

Now it is your turn to share how your family has spent some quality time lately.



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Ok, now for our PARTY!! Please share your FUN Family Times!!

Adventures Outside Using our Senses and Imaginations


We spent much of the day outside on Saturday. Hazel has decided that the stuffed llama I got for my first Mother's Day (Heifer fundraiser--Buy a Llama for Your Mama) is a dog and it is Ducky's dog to be exact. Well she has me tie a string on to it as a leash and she drags it all over the place inside and out. Above she is running with Doggy. She would do this and then say Mommy needs to take a break now Doggy and come sit with me for a few minutes and then be off again.

As I have posted we are taking a class at Drumlin Farms on using our senses around the farm in the spring. This week we discussed sight. So today while outside we decided to pay attention to our senses. The first thing we always discuss is the sky--at least ever since we read Blue Sky by Audrey Wood. This book just shows different skies and labels them like blue sky, cloud sky, rainbow sky, etc. So now we always notice the sky and label it. Today was definitely a blue sky day.

Then we got to see a bird's nest--a sparrow's nest to be exact. We have a sparrow family that always nests on our house. So I pointed out the nest to Hazel today.
We also saw and heard lots of birds especially after we filled the birdfeeder.
Taking an idea from Living and Learning at Home (I featured this at Sharing Saturday this week), we drew pictures of what we saw, what we heard and what we felt today. I labeled all of our pictures so we would know what they were--especially Hazel's.
Hazel decided to go barefoot so she felt the grass on her feet as well as the woodchips. She didn't like the feeling of the woodchips.
She had fun filling the birdfeeder and carried the birdseed bag herself. She also liked walking on her stumps in her bare feet. I thought it would hurt, but apparently it didn't.
When we talked about what we see she mentioned the clothesline. I guess that is because we hung the clothes out when we first came outside.  Here are the pages from our journal.

 Then it was lunch time, so we had lunch outside.
Nothing like bringing in another sense to the day. Daddy wasn't home so he wasn't there to complain about having to eat outside. Hazel really wanted to so we went for it. After lunch she wanted to go for a walk. She decided she wanted to go in her stroller. I'll share in another post about our walk.  Then when we got back, Hazel was still a bit tired so we made her a place to rest.
After resting she wanted to play train. So we took the train to the zoo.
Hazel spots a red kangaroo out the train window...apparently we are visiting her pen pal in Australia.
She warned me it would be a long train ride and thought I should bring a book. I won a giveaway over at This Cosy Life which included a book, so I grabbed it.
I read the first chapter aloud with many interruptions to ask "Are we there yet?" per Hazel's request. Then she wanted to hear the first chapter again. Then I read the second chapter and at the end of it we were there and got off the train.
Then she played hide and seek with the sun. The sun went behind some clouds and she asked me where it was. I told her it was playing hide and seek so she went off to seek it. When it came back out she claimed to have found it. Then she went to hide from the sun.
I guess since she is in shade she is hiding from it.
Hazel's Talking Electric Toothbrush--or at least that is what she said it is

Next the chalk came out. She had fun drawing and then asked me to make 3 hopscotches for her. One for her, one for me and one for Daddy. She told me what to put in each box. She also drew two squares. It is the first time her squares actually looked squarish.

Then Mr. and Mrs. Mallard came for a visit. (Hazel had been asking me all day if they would.) We fed them some bread.
Hazel loves feeding them!
They were still out there when Daddy came home so we fed them some more. In fact they may be nesting out there. They seemed to not like us seeing them in one part of the brook.
After that we went out for ice cream--but I'll share that for Tuesday's Happy Family Times post. Hope you had a great weekend!!

Gone Fishin'



Every time we go to Lakeshore Learning Store, Hazel becomes obsessed with their Magnetic Fishing Set (the store leaves toys out to be tried). I had seen one to make in Creative Play for Your Toddler: Steiner Waldorf Expertise and Toy Projects for 2-4s by Christopher Clouder and Janni Nicol. I had big plans to make really fancy fish. I even started them, but never finished. I did a needle felting kit of a fish that reminded me of The Rainbow Fish. I have to find where I put it so I can finish it for her. If you haven't heard of The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister, it is a wonderful book that teaches that being beautiful and having nice possessions is not the most important thing, but being kind and sharing will be more rewarding in life and bring you happiness. It is one of our favorites.

Then of course last weekend we went to our church's Easter Fun Day and they had magnet fishing which Hazel loved. There they did simply paper fishes with a paper clip where its mouth should be and a magnet fishing pole.

This got me motivated again. Oh, and Hazel was using cat toys with a plastic Easter egg stuck on the end as fishing poles and kept needing help when the egg fell off. It was driving me a bit crazy. So I decided instead of fancy fish to make simple fish. I cut them out of wool felt. Then I looked for some washers. I couldn't find the ones I had put away over the summer so I went to Home Depot. We have a friend from church who works there and always helps me find what I need, so it makes it easy to shop there. He found us a good package of washers and some super magnets. Of course we didn't get to Home Depot right away so we tried paper clips but the wool felt fish were too heavy and the paper clips too small. We did a few paper fishes that Hazel cut out herself.

So Friday afternoon and evening I spent sewing the washers on the wool fish. I used embroidery floss to sew them on.
Then for the fishing pole, I bought a wooden dowel and had Steve cut it in half. I tied a string to it and tied on one of the super magnets. I made two so someone else can fish with her.
Now we are ready to go fishing! She loves it and played for quite some time.




She even got out a basket to put the fish in after catching them. Oh, and brought out containers of food to feed the fish in case they were hungry. Guess she doesn't quite understand about bait yet. Oh, well.


Have to share this last picture. While I was typing this up, Hazel had her doll, Bella, as a fishing partner since I was too busy.

Well we are off to go fishing. Hope you are having a great day!!