Farm animals and flying monkeys

Yesterday was a near perfect day. The girls and I braved a 2 and half hour road trip to visit a working historical farm that was having a homeschool day event. This is the longest road trip that I have attempted without help since I have had Kamiryn. I know, I'm a wimp. Our day went wonderfully well with Kamiryn actually getting the good kid award for the trip there (but NOT for the way back!). We spent about about 4 hours total at the farm including our picnic lunch outside before we went in at 1:00. The big girls loved being able to take off and roam free. Miranda met two other homeschool girls around her age and hung out with them for a while which is not a normal, common Miranda thing to do. Very cool. Madison and Danelle stuck together pretty well. They held the lambs, worked in the garden, played in the barn and ran amuck. It was fabulous. So that left Kamiryn and I to hang out together. We had a delightful time!!! We pretty much went opposite the crowd, so she had a lot of one on one from the workers. She watered veggies in the garden with Lance, collected a fresh egg from the hen house, dusted the window sills in the kitchen, tracked down the barn cats, took a turn plowing in the field, pumped water at the well, and after much patience and just a little bit of whining and a LOT of waiting, she too had a turn to hold a little lamb. She missed out when the other girls were having their turn, but as soon as she heard about it she insisted we go straight away to hold a lamb. When we got to the sheep pen the farmer was busy working with the junior oxen doing a little training with them. He told Kami that he would help her with the lambs when he was done. It took about an hour and she spent most of that time sitting on the fence and waiting. And talking to the sheep. "Hey big sheep, come here! Bring a lamb over here for me to hold" I was sitting a little ways away in the shade, but she just sat there and chattered at the sheep. And waited. But then she got her turn. And it was lovely. Except that she wanted to hold all 5 lambs including the "baa, baa, black sheep" lamb. It just wasn't going to happen. That was a little sad for her, but then we hurried off to the horse drawn trolley ride before it was time to go. It was the only hurrying that we did all day. Nice. The trolley ride was bumpy, but fun. I forgot how wide the Mississippi river is. The views were beautiful. Madison didn't notice though. She made a new friend. A little boy came and sat rightnexttoher. Apparently she had the bumpiest seat on the carriage and he didn't want to miss out. He asked Madi if she was in his co-op, how old she was, her name......and if he would ever see her again. Madi sees everyone as a potential friend and she just rolled with the punches. Very cute.

Okay, I did say our day was near perfect......

The girls found out that none of them were cast in the play that they tried out for. This was very sad news for Madison since she and Ethan both had a call back and it went really well. They were both pretty much convinced that they had made it together. Just before we went into the farm we found out that Ethan made it but the girls did not. In typical Madi fashion she barely skipped a beat after hearing the news and then said in a cheerful voice, "I'm happy for Ethan and the Nor**** girls." At the end of the day she told me "Mommy, I'm a little sad that I didn't make it into the play". I let her know that it was perfectly okay to be a little sad, but I know that she'll be so very excited to see her BFF send Dorothy off to see the wizard and fly across the stage.

Congratulations Ethan, you'll be a perfect munchkin and flying monkey.

Tomorrow I'll show pictures of Miss Kamiryn and the lamb. Right now it is bedtime for this momma.

G'night.