Another field trip and Katy's First Birthday!

Well hunting season is upon us now so Ricky has been away the last two weekends hunting... No deer yet though.  Sunday's have been family days though.  This past Sunday we went to Landis Valley Museum for their harvest days festival.  It was a lot of fun! There was a "discovery tent" for the kids with lots of different stations set up.  Chase and I walked around and did a lot of the activities.  Joanna (and Ricky) got tired of it after not too long and went and sat at the corn kernel sandbox with Katy.

Chase and Joanna writing on their hornbooks with quills.  Joanna obviously had help writing her name :P

After the tent we walked around some more.  The estate was actually very large surprisingly.  I had never been there before and would love to go back sometime when there wasn't so much going on and look around some more.  We felt like we didn't get to learn much about the museum and why it was there because there was so many other things going on.

Making brooms:

We stopped and saw some women spinning wool into yarn and then made our way over to get a wagon ride.  The horses and wagons had been passing us for a while and Joanna kept saying how she wanted to go on a ride "sooo bad".  So she was very excited when we finally got onto the wagon :)

What a smile!

We ended up having to leave around 2 because we didn't have any cash and were hungry for lunch :P

The outhouse for the schoolhouse on our way out... I'm thinking I might get this picture framed and hung in out bathroom.  What do you think?

So that was fun... the kids really had a blast too.  In the evening Ricky's family came over to help us celebrate Katy's first birthday.

The birthday girl:

I can't believe it's been a year already!  I was feeling a bit nostalgic and made Ricky start a fire just like last year at that time... even though it was maybe a bit warm for a fire :P
His family came over around 6:30pm and we had cake and ice cream, sang happy birthday and opened presents.  Simple but fun :)

[Aunt Patty]

Monday was her actual birthday and Columbus day but we did school as usual.
Our "craft"... basically just something to keep them occupied for a while but we said he was making a flag :P

exciting right? haha!

Joanna just cut, glued and taped a bunch of paper together:

After we were done with out reading/writing lesson I let them draw on the windows with the white erase markers.  That was thrilling for them!

Chase wrote "keep out"

in case you were wondering the marker just wipes right off with a paper towel or napkin.  Katy was busy doing this during school:

In and out

out and in

She pretty much walks everywhere now, it is so cute, and is in to everything.

My parents hadn't been able to make it up on Sunday so they decided to come for dinner Monday.  It was so nice to have them here!  They arrived right around the end of nap time.  Joanna usually needs a minute or two to wake up after her nap and just needs to be held a little.  Grammy was happy to oblige :)

After she woke up fully we all walked to the park and played there for a while.

We got back and mom put potatoes in the oven and we sat outside some more since it was a beautiful day.

Pop-pop loves playing with the kids.

Mom had brought dinner for us; salmon on the grill with potato casserole and pumpkin cupcakes for dessert. It was so yummy and really a treat to have them for a quick visit.