Great Country Farms

We took a trip to Great Country Farms today to pick some apples.  The kids swear that they had never been apple picking and I couldn't believe it - another mom fail!!

It was an hour drive into the country but it was so worth it!  The kids had a great time on the wagon ride to the apple orchard and apple picking and an even better time playing on all of the slides, playgrounds, mazes and bouncy things that they have there!  It was seriously so much fun - I would totally go back!  

Burnside Farms

 Today Declan and I drove out to Haymarket, VA to go to Burnside Farms.  We met a friend and her two kids there and walked around in the sunflower field for about an hour. It was a beautiful day and the kids had lots of fun checking out all of the flowers and visiting with the animals. Declan was totally in love with all of the bees (he calls them "busies") and kept trying to pick them off of the sunflowers.  Luckily he was not successful and no bees were injured during our visit. 

We also spent some time looking at the chickens, goats and pigs that they had in a small penned in area.  Declan especially liked the goats because they would come right up to the fence and NOT try to bite him.  Always a plus!  We got some of the honey from the beehives right on the farm and then drove over to a cute splash park/pool for a picnic and a swim.  Declan was exhausted and slept the whole way back.  We headed right over to camp to pick up Aidan, Emmy and Aoife.  Aidan had gotten sick during the day and I felt terrible that no one had called me to come get him!  We got him home and into bed.  Hopefully he'll be feeling well enough for camp tomorrow.  It's so unfair that the ONLY week of the summer that they have camp is the one time that Aidan gets sick!!  Poor kid!!

Visiting the Farm

 We did the drive from Ft. Campbell to DC in two days and stayed the night in Bristol.  We stopped to see my grandmother at her farm in Southern VA.  My cousin and her husband and kids live there too so it was nice to get to see them as well.  The kids loved the farm - the animals, swings, bridge - it was all fantastic! 

Emmy and the Farm

It's really interesting to see how much differently Emmy plays than Aidan did at this age. She loves this little farm and the plastic animals that go with it. She'll put the animals in the doors and move them from stall to stall. It keeps her occupied for at least 10 minutes - which, if you're a mother of a boy, you know is incredible. At this age Aidan was so concerned about learning to pull up and walk that no toy could hold his interest for longer than 30 seconds. I'm not exaggerating. Emmy is very content to sit and play with a toy. When she gets bored she falls on her back, rolls onto her tummy, pushes up and looks around. If she sees something she wants and it is out of her reach she'll try to get someone to get it for her by grunting and looking at the desired object. If that doesn't work she'll make a few attempts to reach out and grab it - this mostly sends her backwards - then she'll set her sights on something closer. Here she is with her two loyal subjects. Murph and Sully LOVE Emmy. They try to be as close as possible at all times. She loves to pet them and pull on their ears - it's really cute.