Florida Part III

On Day 3 of or trip to Florida, we visited Uncle Donald's Farm (or Old MacDonalds Farm as we referred to it as).  It's just a farm on the outskirts of The Villages.  But not just any farm.  Actually it was more like a zoo.  You want to see Chickens?  They have 30 different kinds.  You want ducks?  They have 20 kinds.  Geese, swans, rabbits, goats, ostriches, cows, pigs, horses, wild cats, owls, birds, and many other varieties of wild animals.  They had a lot more than I expected.  

My favorite chicken.  So cute!!  

This little one was sleepy.  

Meredith had a blast feeding the animals.  

Another one of my favorite, fluffy chickens.  I think it was a Frizzle chicken.  

We took a hayride out to the pasture and we fed cows.  Since I was the farm girl, I was designated to lead the way on all this so you will see me in a lot of pictures.  

Yep, there I am feeding the cows.  And petting our kitty friend who joined us on the wagon ride.  

Since we were the only ones there, Meredith got to do a lot of things like hold this chicken. 

And pet this goat.  

And milk this goat.  I milked the goat too.  

Here we are waiting to feed a baby goat.  

Awwww, so cute.  This little girl was only two weeks old.  

Florida Part II

Day 2 we headed over to New Smyrna Beach on the Atlantic Coast.  The day was a cool, cloudy day but we hoped as we got closer to the coast, the clouds would dissipate.  No such luck.  It actually was super windy too blowing all the really fine sand in our eyes.  As you can see, we were the ONLY ones on the beach that day.  And we weren't there very long.  New Smyrna doesn't have much to do so we ended up driving a bit further north to Daytona Beach.  We didn't actually get out and go to the beach but we drove through the town and it was quite nice.  I think we may do a weekend out there the next time we go.  

It looks like we landed on the moon but alas, that is the beach we're on here.  

Oh wait...did I say we were the only ones at the beach?  Let's not forget the dog walker and the metal detector dude.  Anyway, this next series of pictures is cute. Mer was so happy to be at the  beach that she just started hopping and skipping around and wouldn't stop.  It looks like she's moon walking in the ones where she's in the air.  

Oh, we have this cute little baby too...her name is Anna.  And her hair looks quite red in this picture.  

 No matter what the weather, you can't go to the ocean without wading so I took one for the team and ended up getting wet.  Seriously, look at those waves!

 What to do with white, fluffy sand?  Make sand angels of course!  

Florida Part I

It's been a while since I've updated. We've been busy with lots of stuff going on between preschool, hockey, and going to Florida with a bunch of other stuff mixed in!  I'm going to post pictures in a couple of different posts because I simply have too many to go through.  

Our trip was great!  I was most nervous about the plane ride.  Not so much Meredith, but I was afraid Anna would screech or scream the whole way down.  I was next to her on the way down and she did pretty darn good.  She had her own seat and we did strap her in her car seat so I think that helped as she's used to being good when she's in her car seat.  I went armed with tons of snacks.  And when she did get antsy, I let her play on the iPad.  She loves just looking at pictures and movies.  And I was AMAZED at all the junk we were able to haul through the airport without a cart.  Two large suitcases, two carseats, diaper bag, camera bag, stroller, & Meredith's backpack which she wheeled herself.  

As for what we did, I was not even tempted in the least to go to some mega tourist attraction (AKA Disney World, Sea World, etc.).  Yay!  We ended up doing some great things where we were virtually the only people there most of the time!  Pure bliss I tell you.  

The next day after we arrived, we headed to Weeki Wachee Spring State Park to see the Mermaid shows.  There were probably only 50-75 people there that day and it was delightful.  First off, the park was full of peacocks.  They are everywhere!  And they come up to your table and beg for food like rodents.  

This was a set of Christmas decorations that actually spelled Mermaids but I thought it was cute for Mer to sit on the first three blocks.  

We were inside the underwater theater here ready for one of the mermaid shows.  

This is about as good as it gets for my mermaid pictures.  You can see the three of them in there.  It is actually quite an amazing show they do.  

And then the girls got to sit for a picture with a mermaid!  

Cute picture of them playing with each other.  

In case anyone was wondering, yes, I was in Florida too.  A horrible picture but there I am!  

Last but not least, we got Grandpa Carlson to pose as Poseidon.  You can't see his face very well in this picture though.  

Stay tuned for more pictures of the things we did in the next week or so!  

Halloween 2012

I hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween!   This may be a new record for me as far as updating the blog.  I'm usually a week late.  I'm so happy it's over.  The day or two leading up to Halloween provided lots of really bad behavior from the older daughter.  Lots of mouthing off, sassing back, not listening, etc.  Even her teacher said she had some behavior issues.  At the end of the night on 10/30 I pretty much lost it with her after I couldn't take any more sassing.  I went there and threatened to take away trick-or-treating.  Seriously...I was ready to sell her to the Gypsies.  Her behavior did improve significantly the next day.  

This was taken on 10/30.  I get lots of faces like this now.  

I carved the Hello Kitty pumpkin and Meredith drew the face on her pumpkin and I cut it out.  I got lots of compliments on my Hello Kitty pumpkin BTW.  

Here's the close-up of Meredith's pumpkin.  I think it's just the cutest thing ever!  It's so 5-year-old.  

Sooooo...on 10/31 we started off the day in costumes.  Meredith wore hers to pre-school and we dressed up Anna as well.  I think this is just the cutest cowgirl costume ever!  

Arrrrrr!  I'm giving a huge shout out to Grandma Schwake for making this costume!  Meredith decided quite a while ago she wanted to be a pirate but I wasn't liking any of the 'costume' options.  I started looking on Etsy and fell in love with a handmade pirate costume but it was $85 plus shipping.  Greg was not having any of that so I bought a pattern and some fabric and Grandma put this together.  It turned out soooooo cute!  

Grandma Schwake and Auntie Jennifer stopped by in the evening to help hand out candy and she brought both the girls a huge pumpkin cookie!

This is the best I could get with both kids together:)

One last action shot where she's digging in awe through her loot.  

Emma Krumbee's

Last weekend we headed down to Emma Krumbee's as we do every October.  It's such a fun place for kids.  It's cheap and there's lots to do for a little kid.  I met up with a friend of mine and her two daughters while Anna & Greg stayed home.  Anna will probably have fun next year.  As it always is, it was a glorious day!  I can't believe how lucky I have been all these years going...we always seem to have great weather.  

This is Meredith's friend Erin.  

Riding on the barrel train.  I think I have a picture in this every year we've gone.  

I love how this picture captures the joy of being a child.  

We went out to the pumpkin patch and much to Meredith's dismay, we didn't get any pumpkins.  We already have 5 at home.  

The kiddie band tent is always a favorite.  That's the first and last place we stopped:)

School Pictures

School pictures aren't exactly new to us.  Meredith has been getting her pictures done at her old daycare/preschool since she was 2.  And not only once/year but twice/year.  So I kind of knew to expect to pay a fortune but still.  $34 for two sheets of portraits.  They do look nice though!  Although she has one cuff rolled up and not the other.  Oh well.  Meredith looks so...I don't know...grown up I guess.