Raising Animal Lovers

Madi coaxed me out to the shop this afternoon and said I just had to come and see what they found...

Sitting on top of our sprayer was a nest with three baby robins.

Those busy farm guys at our house were trying to get the sprayer up and ready to go for the year so the babies and the nest had to go.

Our little animal lover, Madi, insisted that they be careful and that she would help care for the babies until we could find their mama.

I was enlisted to help with 'worm duty' and we spent quite awhile digging up a snack in the garden this afternoon for the babies.

Coming to you live from our front porch this evening, I am happy to report that one of the babes has flown away and the mama (or at least I am guessing it is the mama since it has been hanging out in our yard next to the babies for about an hour now) is feeding the other two.

It's a pretty awesome site to witness!

After we discovered the adorable baby birds, we decided to let them have a rest and we introduced a couple of our baby kitties to the outside world.

I can barely handle the cuteness that is Max and Spuddy and their adorable co-parents, my kiddos...little Mickey (the other kitten couldn't be persuaded to leave his mama so we left him in the shop).

Good- bye winter, hello SUMMER!

Well, we have officially entered summer here in the north.

And as far as I can tell, we skipped right by that season I like to call SPRING without so much as a blink of an eye.

Two weeks ago I was shivering right along with my students as we braved freezing cold temps and a tiny bout of ahem, dare I say....snow during our annual track and field day.

Today my own children and I were drenched in sweat as we worked and played in the 90* heat.

You just can't get more Minnesota crazy!

I am not going to complain about it though because the start to our summer vacation has begun with a BANG and we are loving (almost) every minute of it (aside from those little fires I seem to constantly be putting out with those lovable, competitive kids of mine!).

I can't believe how fast these years are flying by...I know I am a broken record when it comes to that topic but time is passing too quickly for this mama!

They were "sooo HOT", someone thought it would be a fab idea to put the hose on the trampoline...

Yup, this is how we red necks roll down here on the farm on a hot summer day! :)

"Oopsie, I don't know why the hose is pointed over my brother mom!"

Finding rocks for their collection.

No summer day would be complete without a Popsicle and a cheese burger grin!

Nope, there was no way that I was going to get this kid to smile...

No way!

Until two seconds later...

We spent a good portion of our day in the woods creating this masterpiece out of all of the dead trees and bushes.

Poor kids, it was starting to really rain when I told them 'wait! we can't go inside until we get a quick photo!'

Ty had just heard thunder and was starting to freak out (you can't tell from the look on his face can you?!)

To end our fun day Madi had to show me a science experiment that she learned...although she can't remember where (I am thinkin' it might be from youtube considering how she loves watching 'how to' videos, but I'm not sure).

It was a great way to end our fun day!

As a side note, after looking through these photos I am suddenly realizing that if we have more days like this one I will be doing a TON of laundry!

With so many outfit changes these kids went through today, I think my family alone will keep the TIDE laundry stock running! Yikes!

No wonder I always feel like I am waist deep in laundry...seriously, what do people do who have more kids than we do!?

Just muddin' it.

Little miss had a friend over for the afternoon today and she was totally excited.

These two sweet girls have been plotting together all week to ensure that their mama's scheduled a highly anticipated play date for the weekend.

Luckily we were able to make it happen!

When I came outside this afternoon to check on them, I got a BIG surprise!

Turns out that it isn't the boys in our family who LOVE the wet, squishy, sloppy, brown stuff we call MUD, but a certain little not so girly girl and her bestie.

I only hope that her mom lets her come back after she sees these photos!

I'm sorry Teena!

Diary of a Farm Kid

Today was one of those glorious spring days when you just couldn't help but smile.

 

I don't know about you, but the grin was permanently plastered to my face because finally, there was a reprieve from the endless winter doldrums that were dragging me down!

 

Our crabby cat Gordon was even enjoying a nap in the warm sunshine...looks pretty peaceful doesn't he?

 



This evening, before the big guy left to milk the cows at the barn, he asked if I wanted to come with..

 

After he planted the idea in my head, there was no way that I could resist, the day was just too nice...even when I had 2 of the 3 littles complaining while I dragged them the 7 miles to the barn.

 

The following photos prove that this crazy mom might have had a good idea about following dad afterall...I think these farm kids are pretty lucky and were all smiles once we got there...

I know that they both missed this!

Look at that face...you would never guess that she was one of the crazy kids who was adamently against going to the barn in the first place would you?!

A glimpse at a robotic milker in action...Madi taught me how to 'clean' up after them...I learn so much from these farm kids of mine!

She had a great time teaching me a thing or two in the parlor...she is still down at the barn with her dad as I write this...she loves being with him while he milks!

When we went outside to check on the boys, we found a pretty serious game of rock, paper, scissors going on...I'm not entirely sure what they were up to.

Madi, meanwhle, had a blast climbing to the top of the sand pile.

There is always a lot of sand at the barn because they use it for bedding for the cows...yup, these are some lucky children!

The little stinker even had to show me how she can 'slide' down...

The boys got busy building 'dams' to stop the water (which I think had a lot of manure in it!) from flowing.

And then, our biggest excitement for the night....someone got STUCK!

It took me a long time to believe her because she was laughing so hard...normally she would be in full flip out mode over something like this so I didn't think that she was truly 'stuck', I thought she was pulling her 'city' girl mama's leg!

It got pretty funny when big bro came in to rescue her and tried with all his might to lift her from the muddy clutches!

Yup, she was STUCK.

"I told you mom!"

We did end up getting the poor kid out, but I had to put my camera down for fear I would drop it in the mud and muck.

It was a FUN night at the farm and I am so glad that I made them go!

Judging from their happy faces, I think it's pretty aparent that sometimes, mom maybe does know best!