Britt's Farm

I mentioned Britt's Farm in my post about Aimee's and my planter box project.  It turns out they also host family activities on the weekends during the fall.  They include a corn maze, pumpkin patch, petting zoo, hay rides and more.  We took the kids this afternoon (Friday).

First things first: to the bouncy castle!

Jer-Bear got in on the fun, thanks to his sisters.

After the bouncy castle, the kids fed the animals in the petting zoo.

The geese were not so friendly, as expected.

The goat laying down ate so much that, according to the farmer, she got indigestion.

These piglets, on the other hand, loved the kids.

 

Jer-Bear ran around saying "hi" to all the animals.

Jer-Bear didn't quite get the concept of feeding the animals.

We then went on a hay ride.

This slide was kind of unique, and definitely simple, but also lots of fun.  It was just a dirt mound covered in a thick sheet of plastic.  All the kids enjoyed it, and all of them could slide down it by themselves, except for Jer-Bear.  He thinks he's a big kid, but he's not quite there yet.

Sheba tried to slide standing up, and promptly bit it.

This teeter totter was a lot of fun, and another unique toy for the kids to play on.

Jer-Bear had a death grip on that bar!

We walked through the corn maze next.  Aimee, Abi, Eli, Jer-Bear and I went together, while the older kids went by themselves.  I got tired of pushing the stroller through the maze (good thing our stroller has big wheels!) and mosquitoes feasting on us, so we cheated and backtracked to the entrance.  Candace and Isaiah made it all the way through the maze first, then Sheba and Hadassah.  We also got to shoot a potato gun and the kids played in the bouncy castle and on the slide again.

Finally, we went to Hy-Vee in Manhattan, KS for dinner.  It may sound strange to go to a grocery store for dinner, but they have a buffet that the kids love.  And the Chinese food there is better than all the Chinese restaurants we've tried here, surprisingly.

Here's the kicker, though.  We had no idea this was happening, but there's a KSU game this weekend.  The KSU band and cheerleaders were at Hy-Vee for some kind of promotional appearance.  They played music and did some cheers, and sat down near us to eat.  When Eli and Jer-Bear were done eating, I let them down from their booster seat and high chair, so they - and Abi - started running all over the dining room.  Jer-Bear ran over to where the cheerleaders were sitting, Eli followed, and they started gushing over the boys.  Aimee asked me to get a photo of the kids with the cheerleaders.

I made several photos, because the first one rarely turns out well, and when I uploaded them to Picassa, it automatically made this motion file.

'Till next time!

Aimee's Edible Leather

Aimee's been running her food dehydrator non-stop lately.  She bought it when I was in Afghanistan and uses it to make snacks for the kids like dried fruit and fruit leather (fruit roll-ups).  They're healthier and less expensive than the stuff you can buy at the store.

This food dehydrator is different than most in that the fan is in the back of the unit.  The trays slide in and out the front.  That way, all the trays receive equal air flow, and all the food dries at the same rate.  Also, the moisture that exits the food doesn't drip on the fan.  We really like it, but it's expensive.

The batch above is apple sauce.  It's delicious, but my favorite is the next one.

That second batch is strawberry yogurt.  I'd never heard of yogurt leather before Aimee started making it, but let me tell you, it's scrumptious!  This time around, Aimee used store bought apple sauce and yogurt for the sake of saving time, but she also makes her own of both.  Maybe next time we'll see how that works out.

Jer-Bear is Plum Tuckered

Lately, Jer-Bear has been napping in the late afternoon.  That may not seem like a big deal to people who have normal babies, but our babies don't sleep.  No, really.  They don't sleep!  Ever since Jer-Bear moved onto his big boy bed with his brothers, however, he's been getting up around 6:00 am with the other kids (the older kids, from Abi up, start classes at 7:00 am).  Because of that, he now passes out - quite suddenly, I might add - while hanging out in the family room (the other kids do classes in all the other rooms).

Our family room looks like a preschool, because that's what it is.

Jer-Bear takes his favorite blanket, nuzzles it, lays down where ever he happens to be and goes to sleep.  Today, I was watching "Curious George", the movie, with Eli and Jer-Bear in the family room.  It's been one of Eli's favorite movies since he was just over a year old.  Jer-Bear just passed out.

It brought back a very sweet memory for me.  Back in 2011, I ran the Ruckus obstacle course race outside of Kansas City, MO.  Aimee and the kids went with me, and the kids even ran a mini Ruckus just for kids.

We stayed in a hotel the night after the race.  Sometime after midnight, Eli woke up and wouldn't go back to sleep.  He and I watched "Curious George" 2, then 1, while the rest of the family slept.  We started to watch "The Cat in the Hat" (the cartoon on PBS), when Aimee woke up and took her shift.

It was a rough drive back to the Fort Riley area the next day, but those few hours - just my Little Man and me - were precious.  And because we have older kids, I also already know how fleeting they are.

Planter Box Project (Continued)

Yes, that's my pregnant wife shoveling dirt.  The horror!

I built 10 planter boxes for Aimee to plant a garden, but we didn't want to buy potting soil to fill them all, because that would be terribly expensive.  Aimee and I went to Britt's Garden Acres outside of Manhattan, KS and ordered six cubic yards of top soil from them.  It's not as nutrient-rich (and therefore black) as potting soil, but it's a heck of a lot better than the nutrient-void, yellowish-tan clay in our yard.

I had the truck driver dump the dirt on our front lawn.  Eli and Jer-Bear, of course, immediately wanted to play on the dirt pile.  It may be worth the cost and effort to buy them a dirt pile just for play, if only I could get it delivered directly to the back yard so I don't have to move it there myself.

Speaking of which, we moved loads of dirt to the planter boxes with the wheel barrow.

Candace was the official dirt spreader with the rake.

These photos are from Friday.  You wouldn't think it from looking at the sky, but we got rained out after filling only two boxes.  We continued the job on Saturday, after it stopped raining, and finished it on Sunday.

I used some of the leftover dirt to fill in where our soil receded from the foundation.  I was surprised we had any leftover dirt.  I really thought I'd underestimated how much we'd need.

In the photo bellow, you can see Aimee already planted two blueberry, and two raspberry bushes she had ready to go in pots.  We worked in some potting soil here to give them a better shot.  You can also see in the background the new plum tree that replaced our dead one.  Hopefully this one will fare better.

We had some landscaping fabric laying around, so Aimee covered some of the boxes to prevent weeds from growing.

This is all that's left of our dirt pile.  Isaiah spread it out as much as possible with a rake.  I think we'll have one really nice spot of grass in the front yard next year.

You can see our apple trees in the photo above.  Despite some trouble with disease, these two produced a whole bunch of apples this year.  Their pitiful little branches were bent low with apples.  We had four apple trees, but two died because of disease.  Hopefully these are strong enough now that they'll continue to fight off any disease in the future.  I have no idea why that one plum tree in the back yard grew so much better than all our other trees.

I suppose this project isn't really done until we plant some veggies, but that'll have to wait until next year.

Something You Don't See Every Day

Now, there's something you don't see every day!

I made this photo from inside Family Video in Junction City, KS.  I'd like to know the story behind this fiasco!  Ford and Chevy drivers, feel free to make Dodge jokes below.

Aimee's Big Beet

Aimee says this is the biggest beet she's ever seen.

I photographed it next to the coffee maker for perspective.  We found it at the West Side Market in Manhattan, KS. 

In case you were wondering, it was delicious!