Old MacDonald's Farm

The weather was gorgeous today, so we took advantage and spent a family day at Old MacDonald's Farm.  It was perfect: no crowd, all activities are included in the cost of admission, entire farm and all water is completely fenced off (aka: Deacon-proof), multiple playgrounds, and lots of friendly animals to pet and feed!

 

 



 

Bennett spent the day practicing standing!

 Rabbits:

 Goats:

 Sheep:

Deacon did amazing!!  He would walk up and pet the animals without us prompting him and even helped to feed them!

 Pigs:

 He doesn't look excited here, but he really loved riding the horse.

 Carson loved it too, and was especially thrilled that his horse stopped to poop! hehe

 The hay was Bennett's favorite!

Spring Break

Carson's Spring Break started off with some bad weather, but he wasn't going to let a little rain get him down! He put on his raincoat and would run to a friend's house to play, or bring them back with him.

When the rain finally stopped, we took Deacon out to play in the puddles.
At one point, Brian yelled to me from the kitchen window to go outside and see what our oldest and his friends were up to. This is what I found:
Last time Carson was in Grapeland, my dad bought him a rope to lasso with (lasso what, I'm not sure...). He and his friends tied the rope to an ice chest and took turns pulling each other up and down the street!!

The next day I "snuck out" of the house and we met some friends at Discovery Green, a huge park in the middle of downtown. They were hosting a free foam party, so we packed lunches for a picnic, and bathing suits to play in the water and foam. The weather wasn't quite warm enough, and the water was a little too cold for Deacon. He lasted about two minutes before he was shivering. Carson, Lucas, and Evan were a little tougher!

While the foam party sounded great in theory, we soon found out otherwise. A local radio station advertised the free event and the place was packed! I had assumed they would have huge foam machines blowing out into the open field, but they contained it in an inflatable corral and then didn't monitor the amount of people going in. It was full of teenagers and adults and the foam was so high that if a little one went in, the foam was above their heads. Deacon stayed in the stroller with us, and we let the big kids go in together.
They were out about a minute later, covered in bubbles and missing a shoe! I don't think they were too thrilled, but we got our photo! :)
That night Carson woke up at 1am complaining that his ears were hurting. After taking him to the doctor, we found out he had a double ear infection and strep throat! The doctor gave him antibiotics and ear drops and said he would be contagious for 24 hours, so he spent all day Wednesday in bed.

Like clockwork, 24 hours later he felt a million times better. Brian's parents took a couple of days off for the break and picked him up Thursday evening. They went ice skating and to his cousin, Jakob's karate.
On Saturday, they went to the rodeo!
(And sometime during his stay, Carson talked Grandma into getting him a new pair of Nike's...notice them below!)

In addition to the petting zoo, they hit up the carnival.
We met over at Brian's parents after church on Sunday and enjoyed the beautiful weather by grilling burgers outside. Carson was not thrilled to learn that his vacation was coming to an end and it would be back to school on Monday...only about 10 weeks left until Summer!!

Spring Break, Part 1

Last month was Spring Break. When school let out on Friday, Brian picked me up with Carson, Deacon, and their cousin Austin already loaded for a trip to the country.

We just stayed for the weekend, but it was a nice break from reality and gave the boys an outlet to be, well, boys. My dad and Brian joined in the fun, reminding my mom and me just how outnumbered us girls are.

The main activities were wrestling, 4-wheeling,

and battling.

The battling included the use of plastic pellet guns, leaving the old men injured before the day ended (my dad by multiple battle wounds, and Brian from a hurt leg). My mom and I just sat back and laughed at the chaos.

On our way home we stopped by and visited Aunt Ruth. She has the biggest heart in the world, and is behind many of the prayers that have gone out for Deacon. He was excited to meet her, even if his face in the picture says otherwise. :)

Later in the week Carson picked how we spent our afternoon. Imagine my surpise when he chose the newly built Chuck-E-Cheese by our house. lol

Deacon sampled his first pizza ever while Carson spent the tokens.

Here was his reaction to the yumminess:

Because Deacon no longer is wearing glasses, his shaggy hair could also be eliminated!

The next day the weather got into the upper 70's and Carson felt that was sufficient for SPRINKLER TIME!!

He had so much fun, but the poor guy was shivering by the time he finished.

Our other outdoor activity consisted of lots of swinging!

Carson FINALLY learned to swing all by himself!!

We also installed Deacon's swing to our swingset and as you can see, he approved!

more to come...