Family Adventures

It has been a busy week. We have had fun together, even as we worked together and yet didn't get everything done that we wanted to. On Wednesday Alan took a vacation day and we all went to the dairy sale to try to replace our milk cow.

Destry learns how to check out the cows, see how many good quarters they have,

the size and quality of their udders and teats, and test how calm and gentle they are for a family milk cow.

His dad, who was a dairy farmer for 20 years, came along for fun and to share his experience. It was neat to see these three generations working together to make a plan for the family.
They found a couple cows they really liked, but they went higher than we were willing to spend. We enjoyed the day together, anyway. Alan found one about three hours south of us that sounds really good to him, but we're waiting to see if something else better comes along (before we drive that far!), and wondering if we should wait until after the new baby is safely home. Easton thought it was great fun to sit 'way up high' all by himself in the ring, and we managed to spend a mere $13 on snacks.
Kiana, of course, was perfectly happy cushioned on momma's lap.On Thursday, while the older kids were in drama class, I took the little ones to the library for storytime. Some days are better than others--I have to wonder why there are so many crabby people who seem to not like kids working as children's librarians and photographers. This day, the theme was a Hawaiian luau. They had tapioca pudding and pretended it was coy and ate it with their fingers. I think Easton would have liked it better if it would have been chocolate!When they stood up to do the little dance, Kiana absolutely stole the show. They made little grass skirts out of garbage bags (what a great idea!) and wore little leis around their necks. She took it very seriously and followed the directions very intently.It's fun to take these moments with the younger children doing things at their interest and learning level. So often, they tag along with big brother and sister and their activities, so it's really fun to do something special for them.

Then on Saturday we got up and just felt like doing something fun, so we jumped in the van and went to Columbia. My main goal was to get another little scrapbook kit from Hobby Lobby to make an 'adoption story' album for the new baby like I did for Easton and Kiana. Easton and Kiana LOVE their books and ask us to 'read' it to them all the time. We have no place for me to buy something like that around here, of course, and my days of "real scrapbooking" seem to be a thing of the past. I'm all about kits these days! I made a couple other purchases, too, but that's another post!

While Daddy suggested McDonalds for lunch, we talked him into something FUN and we went to HuHot Mongolian Grill. And it really was fun!The way this restaurant works is you go through a line and pick out the various noodles, meats, vegetables and sauces that you want and put them in a bowl. Then you set your bowl on a counter and watch while they cook your food on a huge grill, complete with flames! (cool)Destry and Easton (and Dad, of course!) ate their food with chopsticks. I think the kids were really hungry, because they cleaned their plates! It was pretty reasonably priced considering it was 'all you can eat' (you can go through as many times as you like and pick different combinations) and kids three and under eat free.Kiana didn't mess around with the chopsticks, but she dug right in. I think it was fun for them, too, that they got to pick what they wanted. I love giving my kids these fun opportunities and teaching them to be adventurous about trying new foods!