Our vegetable growers were having an open house, so we took a drive out to the farm to say hi and see what was going on.  I have been doing more things lately with my friend Katie, so we have started to become better friends.  We are in a knitting group that gets together ever other week to hang out and try to make some crafting projects.  I’ve been out to the farm recently for knitting group, but Jared and Daphne hadn’t been out since we went to pick pumpkins in October.

I really enjoyed the visit.  We got a chance to look at the farm and get an idea of the practices that they use to grow the veggies.  I feel like I learned a lot about who they are and how they view the production of food.  They really are fantastic people, and I am proud to have them as friends.  They care so much about taking care of the community that they feed, and they do a genuinely good job taking care of the land that the rely on for their livelihood.  It’s not just about making money for them, which is such a refreshing viewpoint.

I was really impressed at the amount of work that they have put in since I was there just six short months ago.  Everything has been moved to a new location to rotate the crops.  We got a really, really good tour.  Daphne didn’t hold up so well.  I’m not sure that she got that we were visiting a really big garden, but I’m glad for the experience anyway.

She really just liked the water they were serving.

The walk wasn’t too terrible either!

God knows the water lines are good for a little rest.

Oliver was there, so we got to say hi to his grandma and him.

When all else fails, sitting with daddy under a shade tree is nice.

Saturday was a day lined up with all kinds of activities for us.  We took Daphne to Audrey and Copper’s birthday party for a little fun in the sun.  It was a nice day outside, and there was lots to do.  They had a pool and a Slip ‘n Slide set up, so Daphne ran around the whole time watching other kids play.  I don’t think that she was too fond of how cold the water was even though it was quite warm out.

You can see her here contemplating what to do about the Slip ‘n Slide.

The more pregnant I get, the less I am willing to get down low and take photos, so that is why many of the photos are from a taller viewpoint.

My counting is a little bit off I guess because I counted the day they were born as day 1, or maybe I screwed up somewhere, so I’ll call Sunday day 8 even though that’s a week from when they were born.

I didn’t get a good day 6 photo reall, so here is one of them in the nesting box all sleeping.  Silly bunnies.  They sure do like to jump, sleep and nurse.

I like to make little home made gifts when it is at all possible.  It helps to stretch my creativity as well as really being a way to show someone that you care enough to extend the extra effort for them.

I recently ran into a neat little Mother’s Day gift on one of the blogs that I read.  It is a home made hand scrub to soften your hands after gardening or to take away the smell after cooking.  We had all the ingredients, so I decided that I was going to help Daphne make a little batch of it for Mother’s Day for her YaYa.

Daphne was TOTALLY into helping make it, and she did a remarkable job mixing everything up.

The recipe is super simple.  Mix together

1 1/2 cups Sugar

1/3 cup Salt

1 cup Olive Oil

3 drops Yellow Food Coloring

Zest of one Lemon

2 drops Lemon Extract

Bam!  That’s it.  It does work to take the onion/garlic smell off your hands really well.  Try mixing some up for someone special today.

Daphne really likes to see her Papa, so it is no surprise that she was happy to sit with him and watch the “word movie” with him while she was visiting him.  I think this photo is totally adorable.

Life is always good when you can take your Papa wherever you want to go by the hand.

While Jared and Daphne were in California, they made a few trips to the beach.  Daphne really enjoys spending time at the beach throwing rocks into the ocean!  Jared got a few cut photos of her playing around out there.  It is to be noted that they went to the beach in Eureka, so though it is technically a California beach, it probably was more like going to the beach in Oregon.

Just can’t get enough of that tongue.

A very serene photo.

The only reason to go to the beach is the throw rocks

and write your name in the sand.

The weather improved today, so I was able to leave the bunnies out with their mom.  I can definitely see the logic of leaving them inside though.  I am starting to get nervous that they are in danger of wiggling out of the nesting box.  As soon as I see a little bit more movement from them, I think that I will be bringing them inside for the night so that no one wiggles out of the box and is lost to the cold.  Daisy really doesn’t mind when I mother her young, so I’ve not got a lot to worry about in terms of her rejecting them.

Daphne and I spent the morning outside because the weather was finally nice.  I have been trying to get around to planting my garden for almost a month, so I finally forced myself out there to do it.  I have a hard time bending over a lot at this point, so I was not looking forward to it.  It was not TOO bad, and Daphne even managed to help.  I’m hoping to upload some photos of the garden and the garden plan to share soon.

It was nice to spend some time outside with the animals.  They were all very happy, and I got to talk to them and play with them.  Daphne even got to hold the baby rabbits for a while, which really made her happy.  I’m still stalking Thing 2 wondering what is going on.  I’m more worried today than I ever have been that she could possibly not be bred.  She is lactating though.  She hasn’t bothered to make a nest at all.  I guess I will leave the box with her until day 37 and then try re-breeding her.  If I get  a litter out of her, that would be great, but I’ve not had great luck with my rabbits breeding sticking.  In other news, it’s time to put a nesting box in for Thing 1 who is due on Sunday.  She is also lactating, so I’d love to see simultaneous litters out of both of these girls this month.  At least I have something to worry about right?

My nesting box photos today aren’t really good because they were all in contorted positions under eachother.  I tried though.  I am definitely seeing changes in them.  They have much more hair on them than just 5 days ago when they were born.  Their ears are also coming loose and aren’t pinned back flat.  It will be fun to see them open their eyes next Thursday or Friday!

My childhood could have been better if my sister and I had snuggled each other like these two do, rather than the bickering that went on all the time.  As a funny side note, I was thinking the other day about how my sister and cousin tried to sell me at the State Fair for $.05.  Apparently no one wanted me.

I had a very difficult time getting Daphne to take a nap today, and in the end, she won and didn’t end up sleeping.

At one point, Jared went in to handle something with her, and as he was leaving, she told him, “Mommy is crazy.”  She thought I was off my rocker because I was trying to get her to sleep.

After she woke up, she was out asking me to help her do soemething.  We were playing around, and I said to  her very loudly, “Daphne, you make me nuts.”  She turned around to me and said, “Yes, mommy nuts.”

No arguing with that.  My 2 year old can now tell me that I’ve gone wacko.

A few weekends ago, Daphne, Jared and I headed out to Salem with Julie and her family to the Oregon Ag Festival. This is something that Julie and I took the kids to last year, and we all had a blast.  I was very excited to make it for another year.

The purpose of the festival is to raise the awareness of the different agricultural products that surround us here in Oregon.  In a world where many kids to not know where their food comes from, it is important to give them a connection to the land and the way that things were grown.  This festival is really cool because it was very hands on.  We spent a lot of time indoors looking at different booths getting educated on everything from rain barrels to rain water, bees to plants and wheat to hatching chickens.  There were spinners there demonstrating their craft (someone was spinning from an angora bun) as well as 4H groups.  Anything that had anything to do with agriculture in Oregon was represented.  The entire thing is geared toward kids rather than adults, so there was always something fun to stop and do.  We then headed outside so that we could look at the animals.  There were pigs, llamas, rabbits, chickens, goats, horses and even some Scottish Highland cattle.  Daphne loved seeing all the animals.  We even managed to hitch a ride back to the other side of the fairgrounds on a hay ride pulled by draft horses.

I would highly recommend trying to make it next year if you live in this area.  I did manage to get a few photos of Daphne at the festival, but I was having too much fun myself to think about documentation.

One of the popular things to do was to play in these kiddie pools filled with grains.  This one was filled with corn granules.  Check out that tongue again!

Daphne even got a chance to “milk a cow.”  She is a pretty good milker in real life, but I think she got a kick out of giving this a try.

After that, we were back into another kiddie pool filled with wheat.