Dairy Discovery at Swisslane

Saturday night we were invited to Swisslane's Neighborhood Party. For those of you who don't know Swisslane is a Dairy Farm that located just down the road from us. We arrived around 6:00. We first had supper; Pork BBQ sandwiches, scalloped potatoes, baked beans, watermelon, chips & JD fruit snacks for the boys. The food was so good, definitely will need to go back next year.

After dinner, we went on a guided tour of their farm. So you may be thinking, why would we go on a tour of a farm seeing how we leave on a farm. Well, we did it for the boys, do you know I don't have any pictures of Austin, Lucas or Connor by any cows. I don't think the twins or Connor have ever been inside the cow barns. I think it was exciting for the boys to see inside the milking parlor and to see how close they could get to a cow. After the tour, Mike took the boys on a hayride and then we had ice cream. Over all is was a fun night.

If any one is interested is visiting, Swisslane has what they call Dairy Discovery tours. Mostly they do this for school groups, but on Oct 18 and Oct 25 they are having Family Days and you can go and visit their farm. For more information see their website.

The twins getting a upclose look at how they milk the cows.

Lucas trying the hand feed the cows their feed, a couple brave cows came pretty close until the flash went off on the camera.
Connor letting the baby calf lick his hand
Austin by the cows
Brendan checking out the calves


Lucas keeping his distance from these cows


Connor getting friendly with the farm dog

so friendly, that the dog finished up Connor's ice cream cone.

School Pictures

This past Friday, school pictures were taken and I'm too cheap to buy some pictures that will most likely not turn out. So on Friday night when Mike was out with the twins, I took Brendan out and we had a photo shoot. Here are the one's I like, but I'm not sure which one to use for the "school trading" picture. Any suggestions?????

Long Day

someone didn't like their doctor's visit today

Today has been a very long day. It started at 6:00 am when Connor make into our bedroom. That's way too early...it's not even light out yet. So he laid in bed with me until the alarm went off and I had to get up with Brendan. I put Connor back in bed, but that didn't last long...he was up again about half hour later. At the same time Austin woke up. Now for those who don't already know, I am NOT a morning person. I love my sleep and most mornings after Mike leaves with Brendan to go to the bus stop, I crawl back in bed. So my morning was started with 3 kids wake at 6:45am.

Most of the morning went on without any problems. I had the usually; kids asking for lunch at 9:30 and again at 10:00. I made lunch at 11:00, because we had a doctor's appt for Connor at 2:00 and I want him to have a nap before hand. Of course, Connor wanted nothing to do with a nap, and he no longer stays in bed so he kept getting out of bed...finally I gave up (i know I shouldn't have given in.) By the time we got to the doctor's office, I have three kids who really needed naps. Connor cried through most of the appointment, wanting nothing to do with the doctor.

We finally got back home, I put Connor, Austin and Lucas down for naps which began the 2 hour battle of the wills. Austin & Lucas fell asleep quite quickly. Connor on the other hand did not. Connor is definitely a stubborn child. I am a stubborn person too (so says my husband) I spent two hours putting Connor back into bed again and again. He finally fell alseep at 5:30pm. I WON!!!! I didn't care that supper was going to be in 30 minutes, he was sleeping and he really needed it. It didn't last long, but it at least made dinner bearable.

What I don't understand is, that this afternoon I had to keep putting Connor back into bed again and again, but tonight, I put Connor into bed once and never heard from him again and he's been sleeping since 7:30. I'm so glad the day is finished.

BuCKet FuLl of FUN!!!!!

Today Connor found a new source of entertainment; a big red bucket.

This bucket is suppose to be filled with toys, which must have gotten thrown all over the floor...shocker. Connor thought it was funny that he could hide from mommy.

He is in the bucket.
Of course he had to have both of his blankies in the bucket with him.

Oh, the simple pleasure of being a child.

Freeport Fun Day by Brendan

A few days ago, Mom and Dad took us to Freeport Fun Day. Mom let me take my camera with me and I took lots of pictures. When we first got into Freeport, we walked down the street and saw lots of old cars and motorcycles. Dad said they weren't all old, here are some of my favorites:

the best motorcycle

I liked this car because it was yellow

here's the best huge truck

Here I took a picture of the stop sign

I didn't get the whole truck in this picture, because I liked the dog. I think is was an old milk delivery truck.

After we saw the old cars and truck, we went to the playground for a while.

There was a boat in the playground,
and an old tractor tire,
and an old truck.

At 12:00, my brothers Austin and Lucas and I got to be in a pedal tractor pull. My mom took these pictures of each of us pulling

Here's Austin, he pulled around 13 feet

Lucas pulled around 11 feet

And I pulled the farthest 18 feet, but I didn't win any ribbons, maybe next year.

After that we went home for lunch, but first daddy needs to stop by the farm and I took some more pictures while I was waiting.

Here's Brownie, he's a Puma. I really like him.

Stealing his best friend's girl

It's been a known fact around our house that Joy Dieleman has been Austin's girlfriend,

but now Lucas taking an interest and sweeping her away.

family picture

(click on photo to enlarge)

Not bad for taking it with the timer on the camera.

Soccer

We just finished our second week on this year's soccer season. Once again we have a great coach and a fun team. Brendan is still loving it as much as last year.

Brendan doing a throw in.
Brendan with his friend Connor Brendan celebrating a goal, even though he didn't kick it in.
Brendan heading towards the goal
Brendan's friend Drew kicking the ball.

We are so proud of you, Brendan!!!!! Keep up the good work.

I so bummed....

my sunflowers are almost finished.

Sunflowers are one of my favorite flowers.

They always put a smile on my face.

Preschool Field Trip

Last week we went to Hoekstra Farm for a Preschool field trip.

It was a wonderful day and we had tons of fun see the animals.

Lucas by the Ostriches
You can't see Lucas, but it's his hand that is feeding the ring tailed lemurs a fruit loop.

The Zebras were a favorite...even for me
Class Photo


Mrs. E feeding the emu

Lucas with his girl friends....I think Austin's jealous.