The crew! Yes, I love my kids enough to wear tie-dye with them - they think it's amazingly awesome that we match ;-)
WaverCakes here has found her voice... and it is LOUD. I'm sure this is a surprise to absolutely no one who knows my kids that I would produce a fourth loud child, haha. She chose the 90 minute drive up to Ellijay as prime time for practicing talking as loudly as she could sustain. The big kids were lucky and just slid their headphones on, leaving me to enjoy the noise alone :-p As one can imagine, she was fairly worn out by the time we arrived!
My loves~
The infamous Hillcrest Orchards bear. Victoria, giving her best growl and bear claws~
This was our fourth year touring the orchard, so the kids are old pros by now but they still love it! Each year they do things just *slightly* differently, and this year they started with having the kids pick dry kernels off the corn cobs. I had to snap this picture of Victoria - the light was so lovely and she had her little smile that I love :-)
Lincoln and Judd, working on their cobs.
Scarlett and some SASCH friends working diligently.
Next, the kids all had a turn at milking Buttercup, the dairy cow. Scarlett went first~
Followed by Victoria, who was being observed by Julia to see if she felt comfortable to take a turn (she did).
And finally, Lincoln. In retelling this story later to Jim, he proudly declared, "Daddy, I milked a cow! And I even touched it's PENIS!" Hmm. It was a good opening for discussing the finer points of cow anatomy :-)
After touring the farm history house, we took a tractor ride!
Next came one of the kids' favorite parts - the petting farm. Scarlett and Victoria crouched down and soon had a gaggle of mini-goats nibbling out of their hands.
Lincoln was nearly at the end of a long line of kids from our group, and so at first all of the goats ran to those with feed in their hands near the beginning of the line. He waited patiently...
And was rewarded with an interested little fellow coming along to sample his snack - he had a huge smile!
Soon he was getting swarmed! But he loved it :-)
Scarlett and her (mutant-looking) chicken.
Despite their "NO CHASING ANIMALS" sign, Lincoln spent most of the time in the petting area... chasing the animals. Namely, the chickens. I think I just stumbled onto a fool-proof children's exercise program! Simply fence in an acre or so of land, place 10-30 chickens of various ages in said area, then let 40 kids free inside and watch them run their guts out ;-)
He never caught one, but a sweet SASCH friend managed to snag one and handed it to Lincoln. He clutched that chicken tightly and walked all around with it for several minutes, saying, "I love you" and "AWWWW" and "You're so SUTE [cute]" a hundred times. Mouth to beak kisses were also given and we'll just have to hope for the best :-p
They used to let the children sit and hold the kittens, but maybe they had too many overly zealous kitten-squeezers because this year the workers held out the kittens and the kids had just a few seconds to look at it before they were taken back. Here was Scarlett's ten seconds~
Lincoln's~
Victoria was often ahead of me and playing with other friends so I don't have as many pictures of her during the petting farm time. Soon we regrouped and had lunch. The baby had done so famously in the sling, but had gotten tired of being in there and wanted to stretch her legs right at the moment it was time to get lunch set out. No problem! I just laid her out on a mat and let her gaze about - have to take advantage of her relative lack of mobility while I can ;-)
For lunch, I mostly nibbled on that chin! hehe She was so content to kick and look around at the pretty trees while we ate.
We finished up our tour with lots and lots of time spent on the big slides along the hill. Victoria, doing a land and run~
Scarlett insisted on sliding down on her belly almost every time.
So, of course, Lincoln had to do it that way as well ;-)
I had to switch out from the sling to the wrap, as Waverly was all worn out from her big day and needed a little snooze! Sadly, I misplaced my sling at this point and left it at the orchard :-(
Before hitting the road, we stopped in the orchard's store for apple cider sippers, hot fresh donuts and apples, too! Yum, yum, yum!
I had woken Waverly up while the kids sat on the covered orchard store porch, happily munching on their snacks, in order to feed her and change her diaper. Well, she was too busy smiling and coo'ing to bother with eating so we just hung out until the kids were finished. After we made it to the car, got everyone wiped down, buckled, fresh drinks for the ride, and so forth... Waverly decided to take a major poop. No big deal... at least we were still parked! Got out, unbuckled her, changed her and what do you know - she was ready to eat. So, we sat in the front seat and I fed her as she leisurely enjoyed her bottle. At this point we had been in the parking lot for a good thirty minutes - see how the lot behind us is a ghost town?? lol Of course just as she finished eating she thought I might be getting bored and took another poop.
At this point, I realized that maybe she just wanted us to live in Ellijay, because we were apparently never leaving.
Forty-five minutes after we first got back to the van, we were finally ready to hit the road. Only Waverly decided instead of loudly/yellingly talking the whole trip, she would cry. Aye yi yi! We tried every trick in the book (and this being the fourth kid, I have a lot of tricks!) and nothing helped. Twenty-five minutes later (that is, for the record, a lot of wear and tear on a mama's nerves), I pulled over at the next available exit to stop and just see what on earth was going on as this was so unlike her. As soon as I opened her door she had huge smiles. FAKER! I talked to her, gave her a little toy and got back in and off we went... and sure enough, the crying started back up. Well, we made it another forty minutes and Lincoln needed to use the bathroom, so we took a sanity-saving 15-minute pause at a Dunkin Donuts, where I indulged in an iced coffee and we sat on a sofa for a few minutes and chatted. Then we got back in the van where Scarlett offered to hold the baby for a few minutes while I got everyone situated. When it was time to depart again, I pulled out the big guns and slid back the shade from Waverly's carseat, removed the shade from the window, and with the sun beaming into her eyes she closed them and fell fast asleep ;-)
Back home, it was late afternoon and everyone was in high spirits to be out of the car! Better yet, there was a fun little surprise package awaiting Ms. Waverly Grace... some official Notre Dame gear! So, so cute and courtesy of Grammie Wright. Thanks, Grammie!
One for this year and one for next football season :-)
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