Yesterday, I borrowed K and J’s Mom’s van and we took a field trip out to a farm. I’m not sure I’d call this a real farm- they do grow some stuff, but they bring in the majority of what they sell there and they have a ton of processed stuff. It’s one of those tourist-y places, more like a grocery store several miles out of town with some other fun attractions. They have goats and sheep for petting, chickens to look at and a playground.

They also have this cool sluice where you can buy a bag of rocks and sift them to see if you get any gemstones. We didn’t buy any rocks, the kids just played with the ones that were left there by others. They didn’t know the difference.

They matched up some of their finds on the chart.

Then we headed over to check out the goats. The girls loved them! They went along petting all of the goats and sheep.

The goats were extremely friendly and sniffed out any food in hands.

Not everyone loved the goats though. Mr.Man stood far back and signed “dog” over and over again in excitement, but when the goats moved close to the fence, this is what he looked like:

We moved on then to the strawberry patch. We had already picked our strawberries for this year, so this was just for fun. Each kid had a bucket and I just said “pick” and let them go for a while.

The older kids wandered off and Mr.Man and I just kind of lingered around. He sat down to better find the strawberries. And maybe the shade? It was very hot and sunny, although there was a nice breeze.

The older kids wandered down to the end of the patch and apparently found some rocks, which K told me were “dinosaur hips”.

Then we headed back toward the market to pay for our strawberries and enjoy them at the playground.

It’s a pretty good sized playground. They must get pretty busy out here from time to time. I know they have a giant corn maze later on in the season….

J enjoyed the slide.

Mr.Man is going to be a handful in just a couple months I can tell! He kept trying and trying to climb this ladder. He’d get up to the 2nd rung and fall through, but then no complaints, he just walked around and kept trying.

It was a fun trip to the farm!!

Then we went home and climbed into the pool, ’cause goodness it was hot out!!

So! Are you able to take any field trips as part of your Summer Cool Camp? Where are you going? I’m looking for more ideas!

I wanted to get this out sooner, but our little family has been pretty busy lately enjoying summer. I’ll tell you about that in a second. First, I want to let you know who the winners are from the Matryoshka and Gnomes Giveaway!
Winners were chosen with random.org.

I asked entrants to tell me why they loved Gnomes or Matryoshkas. Apparently the Matryoshkas are super popular! I hope both winners will enjoy their prizes!!

The winner of the gnomes is #16 – Yo Momma Runs, who said:

“I love matryoshkas after living in Russia! It’s the symbol of that era of my life. ”

And the winner of the matryoshkas is #4 – Jill, who said:

“Cute! I love the matryoshkas! They’re such a fun, iconic toy.”

As soon as I get addresses for you, I will send them off! I hope you’ll love them!

We’ve been having a lot of fun lately, enjoying the sunny and not so sunny days. We took a drive to my Mom and Dad’s house to take some photos for their website. Lil’ Miss and I went out in the fields to get photos of vegetables.

I really enjoy taking photos of vegetables. I think veggies are so beautiful. The tiny variations in color, the symmetry… and the insects that are always around. I love it at my parent’s house where the fields are always so full of plants.

Then Mr.Man came out to join us and enjoy some fresh strawberries. He was wary of them at first, but then he decided they are ok.

Later we enjoyed a dinner of grilled veggies with my family to celebrate my brother’s birthday.

Later that week, we spent a lot of time in the park. Mr. Man likes to wander all over the place, so I was busy following him most of the time.

We enjoyed more good food- this is a chicken salad with lettuce from our very own garden! Lettuce, avocado, carrots, cheese, chicken and beans sauteed together topped with salsa. Yum!

We have giant raspberry bushes in our backyard that Lil’ Miss has been picking off of non-stop. Mr.Man figured out how to pick them too, so whenever we’re outside, he’s often over there picking raspberries. I just hope he’s not eating too many green ones!

Aren’t they adorable out there together picking raspberries?

So yeah. I apologize for not getting this post up sooner! It’s just too nice out to be stuck on the computer. What are you doing this summer? Are you enjoying the weather?

Tomorrow starts Summer Cool Camp- I hope you’ll be joining us. I’m not sure I’ll post each and every day, but tomorrow you can expect a round up of some of the fun things that we’ll be doing this summer!