Winter activities

The farm show has been my winter highlight.  Yup, that's how bad winter is for me :)
We've been going regularly since Clay was born and as the boys get older, there's more for them to learn.  I love the mix of fun and education that is provides for us.  And it's a great break from the norm of our days.  We did our school work tuesday evening and went for the day Wednesday.  We were there 8 hours and still didn't get to the large or small arenas for their shows.  So much to do there.  The boys played the detective game they offer to the kids, and before we left we sat in on a maple syrup tapping demonstration.  very cool.
The past couple years we paid the $2 per person to tour the butterfly house.  So worth it.  We probably don't need to do it every year though.

This is normal and happend to all of us!

The chickens are always a hoot

Mid day milkshakes are a staple

 A lot of time was burned at the tractors and corn bins

I think Clay did this for about 1/2 hour.  

This is an example of a station geared toward kids...It was about bees and pollination.  The velcro balls only stuck on the center of the flowers where the pollen would be.  The ball was a bee.  If the ball stuck, you successfully pollinated.  A cute way to get the point across. 

Same idea with the bean bag toss

This flower was not in the mood to be pollinated

I was talked into this!

Late last week we started going over to our neighbor's pond to skate.  They were gracious and said they didn't mind at all if we came over to do that.  The boys are really taking to it.  On Saturday Rod took us to a bigger "pond hockey" pond nearby.  And he reintroduced the boys to pond hockey.  I think we tried it a couple years ago.  With them holding the stick and concentrating on the puck, it's helping them to become better skaters.  This pond gets used a lot for skating.  They have lights set up and everything.

Clay is a disaster on skates!  Just boots for him for another year or two.  He fell enough the way it was :)

We went back today and there was a thin layer of slush on top..which would cause ruts when it would refreeze so we didn't stay.  we'll try again in a few days.  for the first time ever i'm hoping the temps stay low enough so the pond freezes!  i need something to keep my caged monkeys busy!