A Day at the Farm

Although it is a bit of a Ward Family tradition to visit the Jason's uncle's farm during Father's Day weekend, we've never been able to make it until this year!  Jason's uncle Kevin has a great piece of land near Hermann, MO.  There are cows, barns, tractors, and great old farmhouse.  Amelia hasn't been in a couple of years and this was Henry's first visit!

After the drive out to the country, the kids hopped out of the car ready to burn some steam!  Henry immediately found himself driving Kevin's gator.  I'm pretty sure he could have stayed there all day.  

Amelia enjoyed sniffing all of the beautiful flowers on the property!

And who doesn't love to ride around in a gator?

I am pretty sure they thought I was going to feed them or something.  When I walked up, every single one of them stopped what they were doing and looked at me.

 Sitting on the tractor with dad....

It was all fun and games at the farm...

until Henry spotted a mud puddle.

He took a short break to check in with the cows,

and then it was back to the mud puddle.

This was only stop one of the day.  But, chasing two (muddy) kids around about did me in and I left the camera in the car for the second stop.  I am kicking myself now, of course.  A friend of Kevin's had the family over for a delicious fish fry lunch. All the fish were caught from his lake which was picture perfect.  Amelia was all over the place there and really could not have enjoyed herself more.  Henry pretty much napped the entire time in the pack-n-play inside the house.  It was a super fun day for everyone!

Stage Debut

I knew it was only a matter of time before Amelia made her way on stage.  This girl seriously wants to act out EVERY. THING. ALL. THE. TIME.

Her stage debut came when my friend, Tracy, mentioned that she would love for Amelia to come and be a part of one of her performances.  In particular, she needed a "princess" to come on stage and tell the prince that girls are tough, too, and don't need to be rescued all of the time.  Tracy is part owner of Monkey Tales Theatre and the company was the opening act for Shakespeare in the Park near our house.

This is, in fact, the Belle costume that Amelia wore when she was TWO years old for Halloween.  If you don't believe me, click HERE!

Amelia was pretty pumped about this opportunity and she was all questions for about 3 days leading up to the performance.  Once we got there, however, and the play started, she began to get a little nervous. It was a REAL stage with LOTS of people in the audience. I told her that she didn't have to go on stage if she didn't want to.  She could just say, "No thanks" when the time came and Tracy (who not only owns the theatre company, but also acts in the plays and writes them too--seriously, she is Super Woman) could choose another little girl in the audience.

Well, there are my two talented friends now!  Tracy as Princess Marigold and Melissa as a lion.

But Amelia was feeling pretty excited by the time it came for her to join Tracy on stage.  She eagerly ran up on stage and was all in agreement to everything Tracy was whispering to her.  But, when it came time to actually voice how strong princesses are, Amelia appeared a little shell shocked.  Luckily, Tracy is a professional and spoke up, while Amelia stood by and just shook her little head in agreement.

And if you happen to hear Amelia retell the story, she went on stage and told the prince all about how princesses are tough and strong.  You can, after all, "say" a lot without really saying anything at all, I guess. :) 

See for yourself--assuming blogger hasn't jacked up my video....

It was a really cute play and I loved the message! Girl Power!  All of the Monkey Tales plays have great messages about gender empowerment, environmental responsibility, disability awareness, etc.

Amelia really, really wanted to stick around for Much Ado About Nothing.  We told her she could watch a little of the play and she happily moved her chair front and center of the stage, while we moved our things out of the way since we knew we wouldn't be staying the whole time. That little pink dot in the middle of the picture is Amelia sitting all by herself watching the Shakespeare play.

My mom, who also attended the performance with us, generously offered to take the kids for the evening so that Jason and I could enjoy a quiet dinner by ourselves on Main Street. But before they headed out, Henry insisted on enjoying this puddle a bit....

 

So, not only did my mom get to handle both kids for the night, she also got to give them both baths!

(Sea) Lions and Turtles and Peacocks, oh my!

 Another day, another trip to the zoo.  (Actually, we went there twice in the same week, but I only brought a camera once. And by camera, I mean iphone).

I try and take a picture of Amelia kissing this sea lion AT LEAST once a year.  Maybe someday soon I will dig out all of the past pictures and post them together.  I'm thinking it will definitely be the spot of her senior pictures some day.

 I'm not sure why this peacock was all out and about during our visit.  He (she?) seemed to be engrossed in watching the construction of the new sea lion area.  I am not sure if I have never paid attention before, but I don't think I've ever seen a peacock up this close and personal. Both kids were fascinated as well.

Believe it or not, I have never been to Turtle Park across the street from the Zoo.  During this particular visit, I was feeling rather brave.  It is a cute little park and the kids loved climbing on the turtles.  Amelia even found some turtle eggs and Henry now says, "turtle". 

Unfortunately, our trip was cut a bit short because the rain started falling.  But, we will definitely be back when we have more time to play and explore.

Big Truck Day

We thought we would try out Big Truck Day at Kemp Auto Museum for Henry's sake.  He loves anything with wheels and can easily point out several types of trucks from his favorite book: My First Truck Book (which, incidentally, is now in about 8 different pieces).

Turns out, Amelia loved it even more than Henry.  Good thing she has a little brother or she may have never had the pleasure of coming to an event like this.  Shame on her parents! Girls like trucks too!

The school bus was a very popular attraction at the museum.  That was probably because not only could you press lots of buttons and pretend to drive the bus, but you could also HONK. THE. HORN.  Oh boy! 

Henry's favorite was definitely the old time fire truck.  He did NOT want to get off of the back.  He just kept running up and down the length of the bed going "Ding, ding.  Ding, ding". Did I mention there was a bell on it that the kids could ring?

Amelia was all about putting the helmet on (which possibly weighed more than her).

 And, really, who knew an empty delivery truck could be so fun?

I hear "Meet the Machines" is a super fun big truck type event to do, too.  I think we will make a point to attend that next time it is offered!

Here a Project, There a Project

Despite my sewing machines issues, I was still able to complete my list of projects on time.  First up was this little applique tank top for one of Amelia's dearest friends.  I REALLY wanted to do an initial shirt for Miss Natalie, but since I did that for her at Christmas I decided to come up with something different.  This was a bit of a last minute decision, but I think it came together nicely!  I love projects that don't require me to buy any new fabrics--these were all scraps.

The only requirement for this tank project was for it to match this green/turquoise skirt I picked up at Costco and immediately fell in love with (so much so that I bought the same one for Amelia's birthday outfit.  The tank top is the same too, in case you are wondering).

Next out to complete the ensemble was this little flower headband.  I LOVED this project and was able to use MORE scraps!  I first heard about it from my friend, Karon.  I found the tutorial here. Seriously, if you like this at all, give it a try.  Super simple and so much fun!  I think these little pom poms would be cute on a shirt too as am embellishment.  Really, the possibilities are endless!

With Natalie's gift squared away, I was ready to start on some baby shower gifts.  Amelia's godmother is due with baby Owen in late July and we are all very excited.  I wanted to try these fabric adorned birth clothes for some time now and was pretty happy with how it turned out!

And of course every baby boy needs a little tie shirt, does he not?

And last was a little car shirt.  I used felt for all of the pieces and think it turned out pretty cute.  I've been wanting to make Henry one like this since his first love is definitely cars.  Maybe someday...

And while we are on the topic of the baby shower, here are the invitation I made.  I also made matching "Thank You" cards, although I didn't get a picture.  I packaged the cards with stamped, pre-addressed envelopes (since I handled the invites, I already had them handy).  The mom-to-be was very thankful.  I'm pretty sure I should try to replicate that for every shower I'm invited to!

Berry Picking

Amelia has been BEGGING to pick some fruit this summer.  Her favorite is blueberries, but we decided to give strawberries a try this year (for the first time ever!).  While we were there, raspberries happened to be ready for picking also, so we killed two birds with one stone!

For every two berries we put into the container, Henry took one out to eat.

Amelia was very serious with her picking, although she put quite a few in her mouth also.  I am not at all a raspberry fan, but these berries were seriously fantastic!

After the raspberries, it was on to the strawberries.  They were so incredibly delicious!  Although, once we got over there, Henry was more interested in messing with the flag than picking the berries.

"Lady, I'm in charge of the flag here.  Step off".

All in all, it was a fantastic day (despite the trip all the way back home to grab my purse once we realized we didn't have any cash or our debit card--oops!).  And the fruit was gone within the week.  We are patiently waiting now for our schedule and the blueberry picking schedule to overlap! And then peaches--my favorite!

'Knot' My Night

An ambitious number of sewing project ideas + fast approaching deadlines + my mom out of town for 10 days =

This was the end result at my attempt to fill my bobbin.  I could do it quite efficiently on my mom's machine, but by the time I figured out how to do it on my own machine, I was out of white thread.  No fear, though, I figured it out without my mommy's help (barely).  Stay tuned to see my finished projects!