Spring Weekend

The long weekend is coming to a close. After a day at the zoo, a day at the park, playing outside, taking care of the garden, feeding the animals, a festival, a play, and a BBQ, my little friend and Greg sleep.

Owen and I headed to the zoo on Friday. I was reminded that taking a 3 year old to the zoo is a good lesson in slowing down. We saw only a handful of animals, some twice, some "not today", stopped to eat an ice cream together and enjoyed the day out. I find a small part of my inner self ready to review the map and immediately start down the path to see all the animals in order of appearance. He reminds me that we can stray from the map, spend 30 minutes watching the hippos, head off to see the snakes, go see the snakes again, go see the hippos again, of course see the elephants and decide that this particular Friday wasn't a day for flamingos, maybe next time. It was a great day!

We ended the zoo day with a delicious dinner with Angie and Ben at the Beach Cafe. Owen ate clam chowder. Why is it that unless I like it, it is so hard to remember that Owen may like something. He adores clam chowder and more often than not I forget to order it for him. Not this night. He loaded it up with crackers and enjoyed each bite. (Or at least every bite until he was ready for an order of fries). We love eating at this restaurant if for no other reason than the sandbox in the back. It is a great place to go when there is a 30 minute wait.




Saturday, Sunday and Monday, we performed our farm duties in caring for the house while my dad and Kristi are away. My child loves these duties and could actually go outside and feed the goats, pigeons and chickens by himself and water the garden. He told me he loves his house.

This is the frog he chose for the garden, he told me he made sure to get it so it would scare the rabbits away.

He told me he was so tired from watering the garden and wanted to rest in the dirt.

At one point while watering the garden he saw a weed. He put down the hose, put his hands on his hips and in a very firm voice said, "Dang it!! I need to get that out of here!" He pulled the weed and continued watering.

He looked at his chickens very perplexed and asked me what chickens he has. I told him he knew which chickens were his. He said he was wondering what kind of chickens they were. I told him we would have to ask his grandpa. He said very confidently that he was sure his were morans. (I later found out they were plymouth rock chickens, but the fact that he could name a type of chicken was more than I could do.)

I am not sure the goat's grain buckets should be carried on his head, but oh well, what do you do.

On Saturday, Greg and Owen spent some time playing T-Ball at the park.

On Sunday, it was festival time. We met up with Ben and Angie to eat some food, look at crafts, hang out and enjoy the day. Owen rode some rides at the end and even used his favorite line of reasoning to get one more ride. I hear this all day, "Pleeease mom, can I ride one more time? Please, because I am so amazing and sooo cute. Please." Oh dear.

At one point while walking around the festival, we stopped to watch some tap dancers. Owen watched them for awhile and then turned to me and said, I know my grandpa could do that too. My dad should show him his tap dancing skills this week. I am sure we would all love to see that.

Angie and I went to see Grease on the stage after the festival. We had a great time and enjoyed watching Taylor Hicks from American Idol as the Teen Angel. It didn't even matter that our seats were in row Z.

Greg and Steve watched Owen while we were gone. Upon our return we learned that they played basketball at the local playground and then went to the store and bought chips and dip. This was their dinner. Wow, I love leaving the boys at home alone to their own devices with Owen. Oh, and they bought chips and dip for dinner and then took it home to watch basketball. We found ourselves making pancakes for Owen before we left at 11:00 pm. (They were delicious!)

And finally, we ended today with a BBQ with Angie & Steve, Ben & Kelsey & their dog Sadie (who needs to never eat strawberries again and then fall asleep under the table smelling not so sweet), Kati & Ryan and us. It was ever so enjoyable with too much food (we only know how to plan for big groups) and then a FUN game of Mille Bournes. If you haven't played this card game before, I totally recommend it.

And now they sleep, Greg and Owen in the bed with owl (who had a bath in the washing machine today). Me, off to join them.

Time to rest and prepare for what the new week has in store.