E-I-E-I-OOOOOO

If you do something two years in a row, can it be called a tradition? If so, we continued the tradition of the Valentine clan spending a day at the farm.  We love this place & were excited when Bob & Jeannine said they wanted to treat us all to a day with the animals. We went last year over Christmas break & poor little Karis was terrified. She wouldn't go near the animals & cried whenever they made noises.  It was maybe just a little bit humorous ; ) Her mommy was a tad nervous to take her back due to the fact that her feelings toward Bennnett & Bella have not changed much over the course of the year. This girl surprised us & had a wonderful time with her cousins. 

First stop, hop on the ol' tractor!

Grammy & all her little ladies headed off on our tour

I think I have multiple favorite parts of the farm including the baby chicks & ducks. The baby chicks were born only a couple days before our visit so the children weren't aloud to hold them.  They sure loved looking at them though!

There were also baby goats that were born within the week.  They were adorable stumbling all around! Robby did ask me what I would think about giving birth to something that already had little horns sticking out...I assured him that I would opt for a c-section!

This girl was right at home on the farm chasing chickens!

The next stop was the ducks.  We entered as a family & waited as we were instructed on proper duck catching technique. I love how Rob is holding Elo back by her hood...she was ready to go! I was deemed the duck catcher....

I caught one fairly quick & the girls (Karis included) were all so excited to pet him. I was a little annoyed at the mud splatter all over my shoes & jeans from the herd (or flock) of ducks running around.  I wasn't prepared for that.  Rob was laughing at me later. He said he glanced over & I was running hunched over in circles trying to catch another with none of our kids in sight. He caught my attention & was like "what are you doing? Quit chasing those ducks crazy!" It snapped me out of my duck chasing frenzy & had us laughing for a few minutes.

Following the ducks, we hopped on the hayride which is sure to break any pregnant woman's bag of water!  We survived & it was less bumpy than I remembered.  I love that Charlotte will now smile (most of the time) when you ask her to!

Elo on the hayride doing her "moooooo" sound as we passed some cows...love those lips!

Sweet cousins!

Checking out the turkeys....no one made the connection to the turkey we ate for dinner the following day!

The pony ride is another favorite part of the farm.  The girls were all SUPER excited!

Eloise & Topper

Karis & Marshmallow

Charlotte & Applejack (or Applejuice as she remembers)

Charlotte has talked incessantly about this pony ride mentioning the names of all the ponies, how soft "Applejuice" felt & how she wants to ride one again.  Eloise has just basically become obsessed with horsies.  She says "Ho-see" as she tries to climb on Bennett or Bella's backs a million times a day, she pleads with her Daddy saying "me! ho-see!" as she pushes him to the ground & saddles up, she calls any farm animal that slightly resembles a horse a "ho-see" very excitedly. It's precious.

Sweet Isaac stayed snuggied on his mommy for most of the day. He got a great nap in  & awoke while on the train ride.  How strange to fall asleep one place & wake somewhere else!
(I speak from experience- a highly esteemed sleep walker & talker)

The train ride was fun and then the unthinkable happened....in the course of a few minutes, we lost Charlotte at the farm!!! Rob got off the train & headed straight to the car to get our lunch.  Jeannine, Jenny, Karis & Isaac were headed to the next animal pen, Bob & Steve were following behind & Eloise & I were just taking our time walking down the path.  Charlotte was my responsibility. I don't know what I was thinking but it took at least 8 minutes to realize she was no where to be found.  I was freaking out, the guys started walking back to the train to look for her when I saw Robby a few minutes later from a distance walking with a little girl in a pink jacket.  He said that he got to the gate & heard her screaming from far away. He turned around thinking that she was throwing a fit with me (since that has become a more frequent occurrence as of lately) but instead saw her running in circles around the playground in a complete panic. There was a Dad standing nearby that had tried to help her but she was so scared that she just kept running all over.  Robby ran back to her & "saved her" as Charlotte describes. I felt AWFUL!! She kept telling me that I lost her & Daddy saved her. Ha! Sure knows how to make this mama feel good ; ) I am just thankful that we found her quickly & that she was okay. We laughed later saying that it was probably a good thing that she wouldn't speak to the man that tried to help her because he would have asked her what her name is. Her answer of the week to that question was "Charlotte Candy Coffee" hahaha! He would have been really concerned ; )

She was happy to go milk a cow following her "alone time" on the playground.  Karis was happy that Charlotte milked a cow & has talked about it non stop since that day.  I on the other hand, refused to milk the cow this year because of how much I got made fun of for my milking technique last year.  Oh how they wish there was a video of that...and I am thankful there is not!

We ate our picnic lunch then climbed aboard an old fire truck.  Here is the handsome father of my children....

Cute little driver

& some happy grandparents with their little people!

We had to pose for some pics....

Our growing family.....

Our plan for the upcoming years is to assign each adult a child to be in charge of.  Well, that was our plan till we realized that if Jenny has one more baby, we will be out numbered!