Down on the Farm

Last week was busy.  Fun busy, but busy none the less.  On Monday I got to volunteer at Tate's preschool.  It was nice to be there with him.  To understand how the system works, what their schedule is, and how the teachers interact with the kids.  It was sweet to be there with Tate and to have him excited to be with me and show me everything.  He wanted to sit by me at circle time, show me his friends and favorite things on the play ground.  It was the best.  I'm sure there won't be too many more years where he's proud to have me in his class...so I'll enjoy it while I can.  My favorite moment was when the kids were lining up to go outside to play for a bit.  The teachers were asking kids, "Do you need to go potty before we go outside?"  Tate looked at me and asked very seriously, "Mom, do you need to go potty before we go outside?"  Oh Tate, thanks for looking out for me.  I'm really glad I went and hope I'll be able to do it again soon.  Aunt Nancy watched Finn for me so I could go.  She's just plain wonderful.
On Thursday we went to May Farms for a preschool field trip.  Tate was having one of his less-frequent, but still trying, emotional mornings and we had a rough start.  We learned about corn and walked through the field,

found pumpkins and climbed on piles of hay

and then dug for potatoes.  Finn just chilled the whole time in his stroller.  He's such a chill baby.

Tate spent the first hour of the field trip glued to my side.  Hesitant to get involved, interact, or really jump in.  And then this showed up,

and he jumped in, and they went for a really long ride.

And he got out of the barrel a completely different boy.  Truly, I wondered if maybe a barrel train and tractor might be a good investment for rough mornings.  Maybe it's a cure?  Then he got to feed some farm animals and I thought his face might light up, he was so happy.

It was fun to be there with his preschool class and watch how he interacts with them and talk to the parents too.

On Saturday we went to another farm.  We got some free tickets to Mile High Farms so we met up with the Cluffs for a very cold, and therefore, unfortunately short, morning of fun.  It was a lot more commercial than the other farm.  They had built a little Halloween village just to make it look picturesque.

They had a hay castle with a huge slingshot at one end where you could fire bean bags at a target across the field.  Tate loved that.

There were some bounce houses, a few animals to pet, a corn maze, and lots of tractors to climb on.

Tate liked this one that looked like the bull that chases Lightning and Mater in Cars.

Again, couldn't say no to the barrel train.  Even Stephen got in on the fun.

Tate was much happier on this farm excursion.  He loves being around Tori and Lizzy and everything about him is exaggerated when they're around.  Especially the volume of his voice.  He kept yelling at the llama.  "Mister LlAAAAAMMAAAAAA".  

It got colder and colder as the morning went on but we were determined to make it to the pumpkin patch.  Glenn had pulled his hamstring that morning playing football with some guys in the ward.  It was bad.  He could barely hobble around the farm but he was determined to not miss out.  However, climbing up onto a bouncy trailer full of hay for a ride out to a pumpkin patch, was too much to ask.  So Tate and I rode out with the Cluffs to a huge field full of pumpkins.

The kids were in heaven.  So many to choose from!  Which one should we bring home?

We wandered through the field and ended up with an enormous pumpkin and a few fun gourds.  Tate got thoroughly dirty and had a blast but by the end we were freezing and it was raining some very cold rain so we bailed.  I'm so glad we went, and so glad we went with the Cluffs.  Tate wouldn't have had near as much fun without them.
Here's our picture Wednesday for last week.  Very late, but better that than no picture Wednesday at all, I suppose.
Little Finny, 42 weeks old.