We've Moved!

Hello My Dear Readers,

I have officially changed the address of this blog to growingourstory.blogspot.com. Please visit us there for the latest post! This current blog address won't be up much longer so be sure to remember the change!

There Was An Old Woman Who Swallowed a Goat

There was an old woman
Who swallowed a goat
She opened her throat
And in walked the goat
Perhaps she'll die
Lyrics from "There was an old woman who swallowed a fly"

I am the old woman. I am trying to swallow the fact that Sean wants to buy a goat. That's right. A goat.

"Just think," he says, "it will graze in our yard so we won't have to mow the lawn!"

At first he wanted chickens. Lately we have heard of a lot of people who raise chickens. But I think chickens are gross with their nasty, freakish legs and beady little eyes. They are one animal that I just don't like. And besides, I don't really want to raise chickens.

"But we will learn to be self sufficient with our chickens and their eggs," says Sean.
I say, "No way."
So he says, "Well let's get a pygmy goat."
"What, are we learning to be self sufficient by drinking goat milk?"
"Well, we would know how to care for them if we needed something like that. And they will mow our lawn and then Loucee (yes I changed we spell our dog's name) will have a friend."

A goat, people. A goat. Help.

We drink Alotta Milk

I have a confession. I didn't make this idea up myself. I got it from a magazine. Here is the deal (as She-She always says).

First I spent a few weeks saving milk jug lids. Like I said-we drink alotta milk. If you buy milk from Walmart you will be able to figure out what kind two kinds of milk we drink. Then I traced 'em, labled 'em, and made this nifty matching game. If I'm in a really good mood, I put pennies in the turned over lids. She-She and I take turns and for every turn she takes, she keeps the penny. At the end of the game, she gets to go to the "store" and buy some m&ms or something small. I make her count the pennies and treats so she gets even more learning.

Even though she knows her alphabet it is good practice. I still collect lids so the next game I make will be matching small words on the lids to the pictures on the paper. I love it when I feel like a good mom.

Guess Who

I came across this picture the other day and it reminded me of the pictures I had just taken of She-She.
I bet you can't guess who is in that first picture. :)

Farm Country

First a picture of my little boy. Here he is playing in the dirt...and eating it. But boy is he cute.

A few weeks ago we took an outing to Thanksgiving Point: Farm Country. Thanksgiving point is a fabulous park with several different things for entertainment. Last year we made it to the gardens. They are amazing. There are paths all over acres of landscaped lawns and gardens. There is even a "secret garden" which was everything I would want it to be. It was small, hidden, quaint, but fascinating.

The other gardens/areas are filled with fountains, ponds, and even a huge waterfall. I think it is the largest man made waterfall or something like that. The gardens remind me of reading Pride and Prejudice when they describe Mr. Darcy's estate covered with gardens. Visiting the gardens inspired me to someday own a lot of land and have my own gardens, including a secret one, of course.

But, the Thanksgiving Point Gardens are not the actual subject of this post. Neither is the Thanksgiving Point dinosaur museum (which we have yet to visit). Or some of the other attractions at Thanksgiving Point. The subject is Thanksgiving Point:Farm Country.

Farm Country is like visiting a petting zoo/state fair livestock exibit/farm, but with the best of each. First it is outdoors so you don't get so much of the stinky state fair smell. It also has all of the important farm animals so the best of the farm life. And, you can touch and feed the animals like a petting zoo.

For $10 our whole family got in, had a wagon ride, and She-She had a pony ride. The kids loved it. It was small enough to see everything but big enough to be exciting. Check it out...

She-She and Bigdog looking at the sheep.

The wagon ride. I am hiding behind a post, wearing a red shirt, holding Bigdog. She-She is wearing a pink hat, sitting in the middle. Then those nice ladies next to me had an extra ticket (you get a few free tickets upon entering the park) and offered one to Sean so he could hop on with us. Wasn't that nice?

Here are the horses pulling us.

She-She named her pony Jandyla.

Bigdog feeding a cow. Moo.

She-She feeding a...a...something.

She-She milking a fake cow.

She-She milking a real cow. With my help. Nice view, huh?

Bigdog loves animals and is known to cry when we tear him away from them. While leaving Farm Country he had an all out fit. He couldn't get enough of the animals and ran from one pen to the next giggling the whole time. She-She had a million questions to ask and took her time observing each animal and talking to them like they were her friends. It was tons of fun and we are definitely heading back soon.