A Day at the Farm

On Friday morning Emily and I went to meet up with our playgroup (second successful meet-up in case anyone is keeping track, ha) at a local farm.  Most of the kids refused their costumes but Miss Emily, who had wanted nothing to do with costumes for the last several weeks, was happy to put hers on.

Check her out... Goldilocks on the farm searching for our friends.  They weren't to the left...
they weren't down the row of corn...
and they weren't on the wagon ride - but she waved anyway.
Wait!  What's this?!  Our friends?!
Nope, just hundreds and hundreds of pumpkins!!!!
Eventually everyone arrived and we had to decide what to do.
Emily consulted this fellow...
and with his advice we made our choice!

The wagon ride took us over to the petting zoo.  Here is some of our group filing in.
This time at the petting zoo Emily actually PET the animals!  Okay, so she didn't really pet them, per se, she did a "fly by" - she would pat them quickly on the back and then run away squealing and giggling.

Not near their heads, mind you, she would just sneak past unnoticed...
and then get them on the back!
She actually climbed up on the hay bale to meet this guy, but when he looked at her it was time to hightail it out of there!
Then we hung around in the pumpkins for a while and Emily enjoyed climbing around.
Things went a little sour when the kids got in the wagon and a little boy took a pumpkin away from her.  So, she got another one and kept her eye on the boy (crouching in green).
It didn't get a lot better on the wagon ride back because she was convinced that another little boy, Noah, wanted to take her bears.  He was yelling a lot but there was no real threat.
After our ride across the farm...
I gave Emily some of her lunch and she had new life!

(She would climb to the top of these bales and yell TA-DA! We didn't know any of these other girls.)
Before heading out Emily and I broke off to run through the pumpkins and take some pictures...
but after she came out from behind the sign I knew it was time to go.  This was AFTER I had wiped most of the mud off of her shoe - it was also on her dress.  And it was "good soil" not just dirt, if you know what I mean.  Stin-ky!
What a fun and beautiful morning!!

Party Time

Last Sunday Emily and I headed back up to the foothills for Jack's 3rd birthday party!  We had a nice break in the rain and it was a beautiful morning to be outside!  Of course, Emily played all over the playground.

We could see that there were other party-goers and even had brief run-ins with some of them...
but Emily didn't know the difference... we were playing at a PARK!
Well, that was until they announced that it was time for Jack's birthday cake!! 
I was able to hold her off from jumping up right next to him during the singing and all of the pictures but then she snuck right up there, scoring the second piece of cake... and a BIG one at that!  
She waited until I told her yes, that was her piece of cake and that she could eat it before she DUG in!
After the cake, Emily and Noah took a brief drink break...
and then played all over the playground - they were really sweet together.
Finally, before wrapping up the party we attempted another wagon picture like this one from Sept. '09...

this last one is the best I got.  Two looking and Noah is REALLY happy... not SO bad.
Thanks for inviting us Jack, it was a really fun party!

Tomato!

Emily was given a little Winnie the Pooh activity book a couple of weeks ago (thanks Grammy!) and I took it out on the 22nd to see if she would like it.  She LOVED it!  Her favorite... cutting and gluing!

She did almost every page in one sitting.  She skipped the tracing pages - not quite ready for that yet - but could draw the lines on the matching pages... 
even if they did take the ROUND about route sometimes.  :)

(Also, the other day she asked me to get it out again and she showed me how we could cut out the pictures (on the page above) and glue them in the frames - anything to cut and glue - so we did!)

The funniest part for me though... TOMATO!!  (a shape matching page)

We Did It!

Made it to the pumpkin patch that is!  With the weather and other weekend conflicts I was worried that Emily might miss out on the patch completely this year.  But, we did make it out to one on Saturday.  Right when we got there, and Daddy was buying tickets, Emily and I went to visit the ponies.  She was very clear that she didn't want to ride them and I guess she didn't want to be pictured with one either.  

Then we were off to the hay ride.
Emily insisted on sitting all by herself on the hay.  

Once back, we got in line for the train...
and only had to wait a little while before...
the train arrived!!
Choo Choo!!
(Not so much a smile as straining to get the fruit bar unstuck from her cheeks and teeth.)
The train ride went all through the 100+ year old park...
and included a HAUNTED tunnel!!!
It was Emily's favorite part...
and we were soon pulling back into the station.
Then it was time to explore...

(perhaps we could have put her against the measure and straightened her legs... oh well, you get the idea)
(As much as Emily LOVES bounce houses, she never likes the getting in part.  This one's opening in particular was way too small for me to sit in, so she didn't end up bouncing that day.)
But, she WAS all about the face painting.  When the lady welcomed her over we hadn't even discussed what Emily would have painted.  I was thinking that I would tell the lady to paint a pumpkin on her cheek or something...
but as soon as Emily had the lady's attention she very clearly asked for a kitty.
Emily is incredibly tactile so she was all about the feeling of the paint going on and she sat SO still.



She was pretty happy when she got her first glimpse in the mirror...
and even happier with the second.
Before heading home, we went back by the ponies - and even though Emily liked watching the other kids ride, she still had NO interest.
So there you have it, a snip of our morning at the pumpkin patch. It was a lot of fun, and our pretty kitty didn't want to go home.