The One Where I Teach My Son the Art of the Gnaw (aka, don't read this if you're a particularly squeamish variety of vegetarian)

I'm not much of a meat eater anymore.  Never was.  Not a vegetarian though, as sometimes I feel a little... carnivorous. 

When I was a little girl, my dad would take me to the Renaissance Festival.  Food, face painting, knights, princesses, fairies, jousting, crafts, swords, and more.  What more could a kid love? 

But the highlight was always the turkey leg.  It's exactly what it sounds like.  A leg of a turkey, brined and roasted to perfection.  (Is it fried? Not sure, don't care.  It tastes awesome).  I rarely eat chicken on a bone, but I'll tear one of these up.  This year?  I taught the kids.  The only one who really took to it was Sayer.  At almost 15 months, I think he has the art of the gnaw down pat.  See for yourself:

He's giving it a once over.  Think you're going to mess with me, Turkey Leg?  THINK AGAIN!  He said that.  Really.  Ok, he didn't.  Because he doesn't quite speak with complex sentence structure.  But he THOUGHT it.  Totally. 

He looks fierce, (channeling his red-haired Viking roots?  Perhaps).  And rightfully so.  That's the only way to attack a turkey leg.  I think he did quite well for his first year.  Right Dad?

The Apple Festival

This past weekend, our not-so-little-anymore family went to a local apple festival.  The rain held off long enough for us to be able to enjoy fresh pressed apple cider...

Then we cranked off the kernels on ears of feed corn,  (it was a true team effort... Sayer and I sat on the side and cheered)

 

Of course, we danced to a bluegrass band,

 

And said hello to an impossibly small looking Screech Owl, (looks like a distant cousin to Pidgwig)

 

It wouldn't be fall if we hadn't picked out some pumpkins, (with serious concentration)...

After which, with equal concentration, the girls painted their pumpkins...

Then they took turns trying out cowboy hats to find one for our scarecrow...

 

And of course, trying on the hats required some of their best scary faces.

Combine all of that with the deliciousness of apple fritters, apple dumplings, apple pie ice cream, corn chowder, kettle corn, apple cider, and BBQ sandwiches and I'd say it was a pretty nice day indeed.

Storyville

About an hour away, there's a little place called Storyville.

In Storyville, kids have the opportunity to play pretend in a grand environment.  There's a kitchen, a post office, a store, a dress up loft, a water area, a puppet theater, a baby garden (where babies play, not where they're grown), and more.  It's incredible.

And?  It's free.

Anyway, here are some fun pictures of our trip:

 

Bean was intently watering her "garden".  The garden itself was rubber mulch and there were baskets of reinforced plastic flowers that you could "plant" in the garden.  Totally ingenious.   Oh, and she's wearing a princess outfit courtesy of their dress up corner.  Of course.

  

I posted one of these pictures in C's monthly update.  There was a small gated section called the Baby Garden where kids under 1 can play freely.  There are plenty of soft, tactilely oriented toys to play with along with a veritable library of board books.  On the floor there were about 8 plastic mirrors that a sitting baby can look into.  These were a HUGE hit.  Above the mirrors are giant flowers with a padded handle bar for new standers to hang onto.  Super fun and well received.

Bean's cousins were there and were trying to get her involved in playing "The Three Little Pigs."   Bean just wanted to be the cat.  She kept insisting that the cat wanted to visit the pigs.  Hey, can't blame her for improvising.  

  

H is taking a ride in a VERY cool rocking wooden boat in the nature/water area.  That area had a huge log to crawl through and a little cave area with a ceiling illuminated by constellations.  

  

The shopping area had three registers where you could ring up your pretend purchases.  The kids did great taking turns, which SHOCKED me.  I think it was because there were so many cool things to touch.

 

That's a very cute baby in a produce bin.  She's much sweeter than the sweet potatoes.

  

H was VERY intent on giving exact change.  

  

Ahem.  My diva found a full length mirror and without an ounce of prompting, she began to twist and pose in front of it.  Oh my word.  She's such a girlie girl.  It's hilarious.

  

R and T are super proud of their giant block tower.  They also had a section where you could create a track on a magnetic wall for a ping pong  ball to roll down.  Most of that was for older kids, but I definitely sat and played with it forever.

 

These crazies jumped in front of the camera.  Don't know who they are. 

Ok, just kidding.  I love them and they make me laugh.  

And they do a really good impression, no?

Storyville is attached to a local library, so it's not very big.  To combat huge crowds, they only allow a certain number of people in at a time.  I LOVE THAT.   It was really nice to have a good amount of people without feeling overrun.  

  

And we'll totally be going back. 

Mooo! MOOOO!

Yesterday we went a little cow-crazy and took a day trip to South Mountain Creamery, a working dairy farm where you can see the cows being milked, tour the farm, see the baby cows, feed the baby cows, and buy ridiculous amounts of dairy products. 

Come on... copious amounts of cows and delicious dairy products in one place?  I'm so there.

Anyway, we came, saw a cow or three, and immediately got ice cream.  Priorities, people. 

Then we went to see the baby cows.  Bean got a HUGE kick out of the fact that the calves (are they calves like our legs?  or calfs?  Neither look right.  But I digress...) started mooing like crazy things as soon as we got close. C was just delighted to be there and awake.

They were housed in one long  barn with cows on both sides.  Bean had a good time dancing around and getting close enough for them to start to sniff her and then she'd run away.

Shaun and I were much more daring. 

Who knew that cow tongues were so stinkin' limber?  Not me.

 "C'mere!"

Limber enough for one cow to try to take a chomp out of my shirt.  Apparently, he got confused and thought he was a goat. 

 

We laughed a lot at the silly cows.  And ourselves.  Because really, they were only so funny because we kept doing ridiculous things like, you know, standing near enough for them to lick us or give us the crazy eye.  

 

After a bit, the farmhands finally arrived with the bottles to feed the spastic, hungry cows.  They were insane when the milk came in, mooing and shoving and lowing.  C doesn't do all of that, but when she latched onto my cheek tonight in a fit of hunger, I definitely thought of the calves (calfs?) and saw the similarities.  Hungry is HUNGRY.   

Bean did a great job feeding her baby cow. I was really impressed since the bottles are pretty much bigger than she is.  And again, those cows?  When they're hungry?  INSANE.

 

One sucked the top right off a bottle.  Yeah, don't get near that mouth when she's eating.

Anyway, we had a really nice time there.  In need of a good laugh?  Go get licked by a cow.  So worth it.