I Tried, and I Tried... Or, on Stump Climbing

We had the best time .... litterally (hahah, get it! litter! See that deliberate spelling error?!) at Whatcom County Farm Tour Day.  Big thanks for Grandma and Grandpa Faiola for coming up. Chris was on a business trip so it was awesome to have extra hands on board. The kids were fascinated (sooooo intrigued) the cute kittens at one of the farm stops. With Grandma Faiola's allergies kittens are not something they typically get to play with so they really took a shining to these little fur balls. Alas, there was none coming home with us. We have fish and that's good enough.

 

The kids also tried to feed the goats (that's a coin operated goat food feeder) and that was less successful because the goats seem to have had their fill of delicious little goat pellets. I assume that since they are cute that they are massively overfed. I expect they'll be put on a diet by their owners at any time.  The kiddos were sad that the goats did not come nibble from their hands. If that's the worst disappointment of the day, I'd say the day was a massive success.

We also visited a mushroom farm (!!!) YES! An actual farm where they grow mushrooms. It's one of those things that you really never think about. Like, where do they grow copious amounts of food-safe fungi for me to eat? It turns out, it's a rather fascinating process and the kids came away with a hugely excited love of all things mushrooms. And by kids, I mean Jamisen ... but where Jamisen goes, Lily goes. It is frightening how much influence her older brother currently has on her. He's using it for evil right now, "Lily, go hit Mommy! Lily, go tell Mommy she's a stupidhead!" and other such childhood gems.

Back to the mushrooms: the mushrooms need to be very, very moist to grow. We're growing some at home right now and so far, we've had one bumper crop and then one sort of decent crop and then a lot of failure to launch and grow. I'm assuming we're not keeping them wet enough.

We love our kiddos more than any words could possibly say. During this outing, Jamisen and Lily had to cross a mini bridge to get across a culvert. Jamisen proclaimed loudly, "If Lily falls down, I will save her. I will...." and then proceeded to go into quite a lot of detail about how he would jump down into the 18" ditch to save her. His protective instincts are perfect, amazing, gentlemanly and adorable.

Of course, then he immediately pinched her as he walked by so he may have a bit of learning to do in the 'hands are not for hurting' department.

 

We had the most amazing experience with Jamisen recently. He tried reallllllly hard to climb this stump (side story: said stump was right outside their Nanny McKenna's house and the tree had fallen over in a crazy insane windstorm, almost taking their house out).... anyways, Jamisen was trying to climb the stump and kept failing. But, he kept trying. And when he finally mounted the stump, victorious (!!!!!!!), he said "I tried and I tried and I tried just like Mommy told me to. And, I did it!!!" He was very proud. 

And his Mamma then called it a day and said, "My work here is done. You can find me at the spa." (That's a joke. I would never say that. I only am at home with the children. At all times. 24/7. Would never dream of leaving them for a frivolous personal time relaxation experience.)

We are so proud of both of our kiddos - and love the little people they are and the little people they are becoming.