Family Farm Field Trip

A couple of weeks ago, Hannah's class at school went on a field trip to Family Farm.  Thanks to Carrie, who watched the boys for me, I got to go.  Family Farm is a big farm out in the country near Malvern.  It was the neatest place--perfect place for a first grade field trip!

I was excited to get to see Hannah with some of her first grade friends.  The little girl to her right is Jaidan.  She and Hannah are so cute, both on the little side.  :-)

The whole first grade went on this field trip so there were about 8 classes.  They had different areas that all the classes rotated to kind of like centers.  The first one Hannah's class did had a big slide and lots of hay to play in.

Next was the cutest little tractor pulled train ride.  They rode all around the farm.

Here they got to use this catapult to launch tennis balls as far as they could.  Of course, this was a huge hit with all the boys.

The owners of the farm called themselves Momma May and Daddy May.  They were an older retired couple who live on the farm.  They rent it out to schools and churches.  They have a huge fairly new lodge that is great for church retreats.  They seemed to be a sweet Christian couple.  Momma May told the kids all about the Indians that may have lived nearby.  She showed them some of the arrowheads that they had found.  The kids found this fascinating and spent most of their lunch time hunting through all the rocks on the ground trying to find their own arrowheads.

Wouldn't be a farm without the farm animals.  The kids got to go in and play with and pet them  all they wanted.  They had a donkey, goats, chickens, a turkey, a couple of camels, etc.

Hannah was quite brave.  She seemed to love this little donkey.

Petting the camel.

One of my favorite parts of the whole day was when the kids got to go fishing.  They had this little pond.  All the way around it, they had fishing poles and stumps where each kid had their own place to fish.  They gave them all pieces of hotdog and let them bait their own hooks.  It was adorable.  I love the pictures I got of Hannah.  Lots of kids actually caught small fish.  Hannah didn't, but she still really enjoyed it.

Next, they went to this swing contraption.  One of the workers pushed it around and around winding it up and then she let go and the kids went around and around really fast while it went down.  Cute idea!

Hannah's favorite part was the zip line.  She was not afraid at all and couldn't wait to have her turn.  Here she comes!

For the last center they had to hunt for little pumpkins in the hay.  They were looking for the one white pumpkin.  They all loved doing this.

Then they counted out loud all the pumpkins they found.

Finally, they all got to go down the slide.

I so enjoyed this day with just Hannah.  She is such a sweetheart.

Each child got to pick a pumpkin to take home.

This was an AWESOME field trip!!!  Highly recommend Family Farm!

First Camping Trip - Part 3: Hannah's 7th Birthday!

For lunch that Saturday, we grilled burgers on our grill.  Then, it was time to celebrate Hannah's birthday.  She could hardly wait.  I had made her a strawberry cake.  Strawberry cake is her favorite.

It was hard getting the seven candles to light due to the wind.  We finally did and sang "Happy Birthday" to our 7 year old!!!

After cake, she opened her presents.  She has been very interested in my scrapbook paper lately, so I got her a whole book of her own.  She can do whatever she wants to with it!  She can craft all she wants!  She was excited!

New Sunday dress!

The best present of all to Hannah, though, was her Doodle Bear.  She was beyond happy when she saw it.  It was so cute.  She said it was just what she had wanted.  :-)

She immediately got busy doodling it up!!!

The funny thing was on the trip home she was already asking me to wash it so she could do it again.  (You can put it in the washer after marking it on and it comes out clean to do over and over again.)  It was a great birthday and we enjoyed celebrating it on our first camping trip!

Hannah, we CAN NOT believe you are so big!!!  You are an amazing little girl.  We are so proud of you and love you so so much!!!  Happy 7th Birthday!!!

P.S.  Needless to say, our first camping trip was a huge success!  We can't wait to do it again!

First Camping Trip - Part 2

We had a pretty good night.  I woke up several times to find Layton scooting off of his sleeping bag.  It wasn't too cold, but I didn't want him to get cold at all, so I tried to keep him covered up.  Saturday morning we woke up and laid around for a bit...

before getting up and eating a simple breakfast of powdered doughnuts.  :)  Made the kids happy!

Then, we decided to try some fishing.  We walked down to the water near our tent site.  Hannah and Lincoln were both eager to learn how to cast their own nets. 

Of course, Layton thought he had to do it too.

Lincoln was getting pretty good at fishing by himself--as long as he remembered to reel it in fast at the end so the hook didn't get hung on some weeds at the bottom of the lake.  :)

Looks like he caught a big one!!  Ha!!

After fishing we went to the playground.  Before that we drove over to the cabin area to see if we could find the Dyniewski's who were camping there.  Emma was just there with her Grandparents.  She ended up coming to the playground too.  Hannah was excited to see her and get to play!

Sharing a little Dr. Thunder with Daddy.

This is the hilariously goofy face that Layton is making these days.  I have been trying to get a picture of it for a while now.  So funny.  He knows he's being funny too, which makes it even better. 

Gotcha Kris!

Next up, Hannah's birthday lunch/party!!!