The Matthies Family: October 2011

Last night the kids and I went over to Erica's house for a birthday party. Erica is Eric's sister. Her husband, Rob, and their two boys, Trevor and Cameran all have birthdays close to one another. We celebrated with pizza and various desserts. Here's a picture of Eric's Aunt Debbie and my mom at the party.

Tante thought she could be silly for the camera, I don't think she was thrilled with having her picture taken. You never know what will end up on the blog. :) Uncle Bill was a more willing participant.

Mr. Micah loves Tante Erica and Uncle Rob's house. Lots of room to run and lots of people to play with.

Here's TT (Tante Tiffany) and cousin Derek enjoying the food and drink.

A picture of the kitchen. Notice Micah in the bottom right corner, headed straight for the kitchen. Probably thinking, "Which one of you is going to give me some pizza."

Jake and Micah both seemed to like Cameran's trains. Jake is holding a train, while Micah is "reading" a Thomas the Train book. Later they were both seen in the living room watching a Thomas the Train video.

Mylie likes playing with the big boy toys that Trevor and Cameran have.

This is Bill and Melanie. Billy is Eric's cousin. They are the parents of Ellie, Chloe, and Jake.

This was the first time Jake and Micah really seemed to play together at all. They usually play alongside one another. Here Micah is telling Jake something that seems to be important. I wish I knew what he said, though Jake seems to.

So sweet, Micah gives Jake a hug.

Then Jake shares one of the two trains he's holding. Such nice sharing.

I think Micah was happy with Jake's generosity.

Isn't he sweet?

Here the birthday boys blow out their candles.

This is one of Jake's older sisters, Chloe. Mylie just adores her.

It was a really nice party.

Today was the 4th Annual HarvestFest here on the Key Peninsula. We have gone every year. It's where some of the local farms open their places to the public for the day. Where you can see farm animals, farmers, farm equipment and such, up close. I regret that I only got pictures at two of the farms we visited. Let's just say, chasing Micah and taking pictures while trying to answer Mylie's many questions makes me wish I had more hands.

We started off at a sheep farm not far from our house. We got to pet a sheep named Lemon and got to see a little lamb up close. We also got to see a Clydesdale (David, I hope I spelled that right) get shoed. They said he was small for a Clydesdale, only 18 hands. Let me tell you, that is not small. It was neat to see the horseshoes being made. Mylie asked why the horseshoe was orange and I had to explain all about how they're made out of metal and that when it's hot, it's orange and how it would turn black as it cooled down. I wish I had a picture of this to share with you.

We also visited the Longbranch Improvement Club. This is where the 3rd Annual Fiber Arts Festival was being held. There were lots of interesting things to see there. We saw women with spinning wheels make yarn. We saw quilts with detailed applique. We saw baskets made from cedar bark. Micah just wanted to run around while we were there, so we didn't stay long. Mylie found the spinning interesting, especially since we had just come from the sheep farm.

Our next stop was Gentle Giants Meadows Ranch. This was Mylie's favorite last year and I think it was her favorite again this year. I couldn't believe all the details she remembered about this place. Here we got to see chicken eggs in an incubator, beginning to hatch, baby chicks in a warmer that were drying off after hatching, and fluffy baby chicks in a cage keeping warm and sleeping under a heat lamp. Both Mylie and Micah liked seeing the baby chicks. We also got to go on a hay ride at this farm. We sat in a trailer filled with bales of hay drawn by a tractor. This was a definite highlight for both kids. As you can see Mylie was very excited.

After riding for a few minute, she relaxed into it and held on like a pro.

I wasn't quite sure what Micah would think. What I did know for sure was that he would either love it or hate it, there would be no in between. Luckily he loved it.

I love his little scrunched up nose. :)

Such a cutie!

After the hay ride was over, Micah didn't want to get down. He wanted to go again, I had to explain that we had to give others a turn, he didn't seem to like this idea, but he seemed to understand it.

I wish I'd have gotten a better picture of this cow, sorry. We also saw a calf, some goats, and lots of chickens at this farm.

Here's Mylie standing on one foot as Micah and I look at the cows. Micah made sure to tell me that a cow says moo.

Here are a few of the chickens.

At this farm there were a few local kids that were involved in 4H Club. There were two girls that had rabbits that we got to pet. The breed of one of the rabbits was a Mini Rex, I'd never heard of this before. Apparently I don't know much about rabbits. One bunny we saw was only 4 months old, he was super cute. These dogs were taking a break from the agility course and their owner asked if Mylie might like to throw the ball for them. She thought this was really fun.

She especially liked when the dogs would catch it in mid-air. These dogs were pretty neat.

The last farm we visited was Blue Willow Lavender Farm. It smelled amazing, that is if you like the smell of lavender. Here Mylie got to paint a rock. She had a really good time doing this.