Yesterday, our little neighborhood had a mini enrichment summer outing at Wheeler Farm. I hadn't been to Wheeler Farm since Chas and I had our wedding reception there at the Activity Barn over 8 years ago and I thought it would be fun for the kiddies, so we decided to go. However, I had a few errands I needed to run before hand, so we planned on meeting up with everyone at the farm instead of meeting at the church beforehand. We got to the farm a little late and didn't see anyone we knew. So, we decided to just start looking at the animals. Before we headed over to the animals, I kinda psyched the kids up for a few pictures. The best part about Wheeler Farm (from a "Photo Mom" perspective), is that a lot of the fun picture photo areas are BEFORE you get to the animals....so I was able to say, "Just a quick shot here and we are almost to the animals!" LOL! I promised the kids that I would take a bunch of pictures right at the beginning and a few of the animals and then put my camera away....which I did. I was SO THRILLED with some of the shots that I got of my kiddies. Lately, I have tried not to be such a stress case about my kids posing and smiling perfectly in every shot and the funny thing is, that by RELAXING, my kids are actually happier about the pics and in the end, I actually get the real smiles without a fight. Go figure. LOL! So we just played around and was completely silly trying to get them to laugh. A few moms walked by and I could hear them giggling about how silly I was being to get them to smile....but when you get shots you are thrilled with, it is SO worth being silly in public. LOL! I didn't really know if I ended up with any good shots or not until I looked at the pictures when we got home!!!!! Some of these are SO CLASSIC! I love them! I wish I would have had them dressed up....but I think I shall frame a few of these anyway. They are simply TOO CUTE not to. Gotta love Seneca in her little Dolce Gabbana replica sunglasses. LOL! So cute!! I am seriously in love with the first picture below on the left with Seneca looking up at Kaden. Oh my goodness! I am so happy I caught that. HAPPY DAY!!!!! And the others in this same pose, etc. turned out so cute too!! The second two shots below are edited with vintage actions. Kinda fun to mess around with a few different actions on these.
A few more casual shots...love these. Not sure I love the way I edited the first one. Might mess around with that one later....my kids look kinda ghostly in it. LOL!
Shot a few quick shots of them individually as well. I love love love this one of Kaden. What a serious stud. And little Seneca...LOL...she just can't sit still. So really, I love this picture too, because it is SO "Seneca!" Always on the move!!
The kids absolutely LOVED all of the animals.Both Kaden and Seneca had fun petting ever single animal and all THREE of us had fun making each of the animal sounds, trying to communicate with all of them. LOL! Again..got a few funny looks from some of the moms, but having fun with your kids totally trumps caring what you LOOK LIKE when you play with your kids,right? LOL!
I seriously threw myself together in the morning so that we could get out early before it got to be 98 degrees, so I look BLAH, but here were are at the farm! YAY!
After we spent about an hour chatting with the animals, we bought suckers and went for a wagon ride. The kids LOVED the wagon ride. In fact, they loved it so much, that as we came to a stop at the end of the ride, they were thrilled to be able to go on ANOTHER wagon ride, since we finally caught up with all of the little kids from our neighborhood as THEY were just going for a wagon ride. LOL! So we road around on the wagon again and then headed home. We were there about 2 1/2 hours and that was about my limit, because it was getting HOT!!!!! I was seriously starting to melt. LOL! But we COULDN'T leave without playing on one of the huge tractors. And it was there that I managed to get the funnest shot of my little ones!!! This picture is SO classic. After trying to get Seneca to just stop stearing the tractor for two seconds just so I could at least see her face, I guess Kaden decided to take matters into his own hands and totally forced her head over to me with his hands. LOL! And both of their faces are SO CUTE!!! OMGOSH...I just about died when I got home and saw that I had managed to catch this very literally SPLIT SECOND moment. I SO love my camera!!! LOVE IT! This one is ABSOLUTELY going in a frame! I think this is the most classic "Kaden & Seneca" pic that I have! HAPPY DAY!!!!
And after the farm and rest time, we spent the rest of the afternoon/evening outside playing in the sprinklers. Kaden's two little buddies, Jackson and Hunter, came over to play and they had an absolute blast. You've already heard me rave about cute Jackson and Hunter is in my primary class on Sundays and is SUCH a great kid as well. Last week, Hunter called me to see if he could come over. Funny thing is, he's a bit older than Kaden and they have never played together before, so I was a little surprised when he called. His mom is a good friend of mine and she said that that day he was bored and out of the blue said, "Can I just call Heather White?" Ha ha! I think he probably would have just come over to play with me! I love my Primary kids...they are so great! The boys had a blast. Hunter's sister came over and kept Seneca occupied as well...so everyone was happy and having fun. YAY!
The boys played basketball for about 2 seconds and then came inside BEET red, saying that it was too hot.. LOL! So I sent them home to get their swimsuits and we broke out the water rocket and our neighbors turned on their waterslide and they all played in the water for hours. These two kids are such good kids and their families are so awesome as well. I am always happy to have them play with Kaden. And they did have SO MUCH FUN! They were laughing so hard...it was so funny! Oh happy day! What a great way to end a great day!
And now, we are so happy to announce, (((drum roll please)))) that Kaden is TWO-WHEELIN' it! HAPPY DAY! I feel so terrible that he is SIX next week and just learned how to ride his bike. I feel terrible, because it is 100% our fault. Bikes just aren't as big as they used to be, it seems, and all of the kids just ride around on their scooters. Finally, this year, we were like "OH MY GOSH....Kaden needs to learn to ride a bike!" LOL! So bad, I know. Poor Kaden. But I say again, for the record, so he doesn't get teased for being almost six when he learned to ride a bike, that it is very simply because we just didn't think about it. And the cool thing is, Chas gave him one push and he was GO GO GO! He went from not knowing how to balance to cruising down the driveways and dodging things on the sidewalks in about 5 minutes. LOL! Congratulations buddy! You're a stud!
Something cute about my little guy before I take off to finish dinner....so I don't ever forget. He is playing outside with his friends and Chas and Seneca so that I can get dinner ready and he just ran in a second ago to use the restroom. When he came out, he said, "Mama, do I look like Ben 10?" (He put on clothes earlier today that he thought looked just like the Ben 10 action figure he has. LOL!) When I told him that he sure did, he went into major detail about how his shirt looked the same as Ben 10 and his shorts looked the same as Ben 10, etc.. I told him he ABSOLUTELY looked like Ben 10. He was thrilled to death. LOL! Kaden has this seriously cute shy smile that he gets when he is seriously happy. It's like he's trying to hide just how seriously happy he is that he looks like Ben 10, because he's afraid if he smiles, he will completely burst with happiness. LOL! It's hard to describe...I wish I could capture it in a picture. The funny thing is, Chas kinda does the same thing when he thinks he's being funny. LOL! The edges of his mouth just barely turn up like he's trying not to laugh at just how funny he is. LOL! Anyway....so because he all of a sudden was talking about Ben 10 with me for so long, I asked him if he was PLAYING Ben 10 outside. He kinda hung his head a little bit and said quietly, "No. I'm playing house." Ha ha ha! So funny. Apparently there are mostly girls outside, so their idea to play house trumped any of his ideas. LOL! So so cute!!!
Off to finish dinner and then get ready for a busy night of preparing for the monthly craft night! Until next time....make today a GREAT one! (I apologize for any typos. I don't have time to proof my entry...will do that later tonight!)
Oh you are the best mom. What kid doesn't want their mom to join them in making animals sounds with the animals. How cool is that?! Love the photos! Your techniques are awesome.
We have one son who is 12 and he only learned how to ride his bike last summer. So don't worry about Kaden being 6. I for one think that is Fantastic that it took him such a short time to learn!
Posted by: Lynn C. | June 26, 2008 at 06:22 PM
Way cute pics! My son, Brandon is 12 and gets tired of me taking the camera EVERYWHERE! But I'm a mom and have to capture the PIC. Also, no worries on the bike thing. My daughters 9 & 7 still don't know how. Like you said, Bikes just aren't used that much in our family. Where do you do most of your photo shoots? I'll have to check them out when we are up north.
Posted by: Misty | June 27, 2008 at 07:38 AM
Oh please don't feel bad about the bike thing - you aren't alone. My daughter is 6 and is terrified of two-wheelin' it. And with traffic and busy streets - I haven't been the biggest advocate of teaching her. I'm scared silly she'll get hurt. Maybe this summer will be the summer.
I LOVE that photo of them on the tractor - it's precious! As are all of the photos. Looks like you had a great time, even with the heat.
Posted by: Bobbi-Jo Grunewald | June 27, 2008 at 08:14 AM
What a dang cute little family you have! Keep on enjoying!
Posted by: Dawn | June 27, 2008 at 11:22 AM
Looks like a fabulous time on the farm. We usaully have the 95-100 degree weather too. We have had so many bad fires in our area of CA that the air quality is so bad & we haven't seen blue skies for days. So, our temps have been a little bit lower 7 i don't mind one bit. i would like the the sky to be blue again :). Have a great Sunday!
Posted by: Raimi | June 28, 2008 at 11:35 PM
Wheeler Farm is one of our favorite places! Your kids look so happy (and adorable) in the pictures!
Posted by: Linda | June 29, 2008 at 09:58 PM