E-I-E-I-O!

 

The Williams Family headed to Springdale Farm in Ogden today.  I like this place. A lot.

It’s simple. It’s quiet. It’s beautiful. Did I mention it’s free? Well, other than the donation we put in the wishing well for donations:)

It was a cool, breezy day…but the sky was glorious and looked like this!

The kids were happy and excited and looked like this…

I’m not sure I have ever shown how we pack our family into the van…but there you go!

Springdale Farm is owned by Monroe County but operated by Heritage Christian Centers. It is an educational farm and there are many adults with developmental disabilities who help out at the farm during the day.

We visited the farm once a few years ago. I was pregnant with Allie, Brady hadn’t started walking and hadn’t been diagnosed yet, and I remember pulling the three of them around in the wagon.

A few years, another child, and a deadly disease later…and here we are again!

The grounds are so pretty. Nothing fancy…just simple beauty and stunning color.

Who’s ready to see some animals?

This cow was very patient with the kids.

This is some sort of giant hog. It was quite shocking—must have been 7 feet long at least.

Well, hello there!

Some of the goats ran away from the Williams family…

Hey! How did this goat get down there?

After our animal adventures, we enjoyed a nice packed lunch and then time on the playground.

 

A simply great day.

The View From Here

My two beauties ready to go to the Church picnic!

Today was much less humid than it has been, with a cool breeze. The kids loved wearing sweatshirts to play outside.

 

I told Brady, Cara, and Eli to stick out their tongues. They were happy to oblige!

 

Eli loved the feeling of the setting sun on his chubby baby face:)

I put some rice in the water table. The kids had a great time playing, pouring, and scooping!

 

Can you say fake smile?

My blondie:)

Looking Ahead

After a busy weekend I realized it had been quite a few days since I had blogged! Summer is here and our calendar surely reflects what is always a fun and crazy time of year!

I'm terribly sad to report that I forgot to bring our camera along today for our church picnic. It was a gorgeous day, at a gorgeous place, and I'm so sad that I missed so many photo opportunities! The kids had a wonderful time despite not getting a nap, although once we got home their behavior can only be described as "ugly!"

This week our family schedule is a lot lighter than it has been. My goal for the week is to put together information for our 2010 Alex's Lemonade Stand that we will be hosting on Labor Day. The cause of raising money for pediatric cancer is so very important to us, and I look forward to sharing with you how you can help us make a difference. More information to come...

Have a great week! Summer is here!

My Day with Eli

I'm stopping in with a brief post and no pictures...sorry:( Life is in hectic mode this week with many Tastefully Simple parties going on and a MOPS get together at our house tomorrow night. Ironically, as I'm sure many of you know, a lot of fun= a lot of work!

Eli had his 3 year check up today, so we made today a date day for he and I. This morning we drove to Canandaigua to visit Matt's grandma who is recuperating after her stroke and heart attack. Eli was quite overwhelmed by being in a hospital-like facility. He started opening up right when it was time to go. We stopped at a few stores and had lunch together. Eli's observations of the world around him never cease to amaze me, and always make me laugh. On our way into McDonald's there was a person walking with a sort-of western hat on. Eli says very loudly, "Is that a cowboy?" Upon realizing it was a woman, he added, "Not a cowBOy is that a cowGirl?" The cowgirl person didn't seem too thrilled with Eli's comment. Not 2 minutes later we were standing in line, and I noticed a foreign man in the line next to us wearing an even funnier hat. His looked like those kind of straw hats that people wear at political rallies (do you know what I mean?). I was trying to shield Eli from seeing him, because I just knew what would happen...

Well, it happened. "Momma, is that a FAR-MER?" The funniest part is that Eli said this and at the same time kind of stroked the man's pant leg. I wanted to crawl behind the counter and start serving some McNuggets! I just started laughing because the people behind us were laughing so hard. Oh Eli...you are TOO funny!

We got caught in a heavy rainstorm and I just pulled into the parking lot of a store and decided to wait the rain out while Eli slept. After only a few minutes, he woke up and wanted to sit with me. I'm going to add "snuggling with your little boy in the car during a rain storm" to my list of one of my happiest life moments:)

We ended the day with Eli's doctor's visit. He continues to be of average height and on the very-skinny side!

I Keep Trying

 

I’ve been trying really hard….

to get a new picture of Brady…

to put at the top of the blog…

but trying to get a three year old boy to give you his best handsome smile…

isn’t always easy!

But then I got a few really great ones…what do you think?

 

By this point I was crawling around on my hands and knees with my camera dangling around my neck. He thought it was hilarious because I was chasing him and his fire truck. He was much faster than me, so every once in a while he would stop and turn to say “Cheese!”

What a goofball:)

SuperWhy!

Every single day during the week at 9am you will find the Williams4 in the same place. Glued to the TV of course!

At 9am on PBS our favorite show comes on...SuperWhy! It is a great show about 4 superheroes who each possess their own reading super power! Together they travel into stories to help solve a problem, and along the way they gather letters, talk about sounds, and teach some great reading strategies! Hooray for educational TV:)

Imagine my excitement when I saw on TV that SuperWhy would be coming to Rochester this weekend!!! So this afternoon we went somewhere we had never been. We went to the Maplewood Rose Festival. I liken it to the Lilac Festival, only much smaller, much less crowded, and more obviously, displaying roses instead of lilacs. There were only about 100 people at the whole festival this afternoon, and other than the blazing sun, everything was just lovely.

PBS sponsored a literacy tent which basically consisted of a person dressed in a giant SuperWhy costume sitting in a folding chair. We had a quick lunch and then got in line to meet him. The kids were SO excited...every bit as excited as they were to meet the characters at Disney! SuperWhy didn't really move too much and didn't say anything at all, but the kids were totally enthralled! Completely worth the 1 hr 45 minute round trip drive!

Waiting for our big moment!

And here he is! Behold…SuperWhy!

I think Cara was imitating my pose here…how cute!

Then we took a walk in the rose garden.

SMOOOCH!

Cara was very photogenic!

Matt and his dad were able to go golfing together yesterday which is something I know Matt LOVES to do. The kids and I were so happy to be able to spend Father’s Day with our #1 dad! Thanks for giving your kids a special day Matt:)