The Queen's Rambles

After a rainy weekend, things cleared up and we were able to have two days of sunny farm fun before the rain began again.

On Monday I joined Erik’s kindergarten field trip. I was really surprised that hardly any parents volunteered, and most of the volunteers were construction worker dads. Not the dynamic I expected, but it was really nice to see them working with the kids. Plus, the kids listened to them better than they listened to the moms. Sucks, but true.

I was wondering why they planned a field trip at Summers Farm, a place at least 30 minutes away, when they have a very similar place about five minutes away from the school. After the trip, I totally understand.

This place was excellent. They had everything really well organized and they had lots of large group friendly activities.

More pics at flickr if you are so inclined.

The jumping pillow was the most popular station, by far. I’ve never heard of such a thing, but it was pretty dang awesome. I want one for my backyard! Can you just imagine turning a little townhouse backyard into a giant whoopie cushion?

They also had a big corn pit (similar to a ball pit), tons of big slides, little kid mazes, a giant corn maze that we didn’t actually go through, a hay ride to the pumpkin patch, and some other things that we had to skip even though we were there for 2 1/2 hours.

The only thing missing? Decent pumpkins.

We’ve had a ton of rain this year and it’s pretty much destroyed the pumpkin crops around here. The kids really wanted all orange pumpkins, but they were almost all green and rotting. I was in charge of one little boy who was bound and determined to get the perfect pumpkin and every time he found one that had a bit of green or any other blemish he would open his jaws, throw back his head and start howling. I think his jaws were on hinges.

I thought chaperoning a kindergarten class would be a nightmare, but there was almost zero stress. The kids all stayed with the big group and the farm was arranged in such a way that there was a natural flow and no one was running wild. I was in charge of five boys–Erik, a neighbor kid, a kid I know from social outings and two strangers. Knowing 3 of the 5 was very helpful. I got in a little trouble when it warmed up and the two strangers took their coats off and changed their looks, but I just had to re-calibrate my brain and we were good to go. I’m so glad my mom was here so I was able to go and help out and watch Erik have fun with his classmates.

The next day Elsa and I went to the local pumpkin patch with our MOMS Club. It is a neat place, but after seeing Summers Farm, I wasn’t as impressed as I used to be. They have a ton of scarecrow type characters all around that are fun for the grownups or older kids to look at, but it’s not quite the same as a jumping pillow. Of course they do have some things for the kids to do, but it is not as well laid out and not as big or fun.

And Elsa?

Not impressed.

I got this picture by sticking my camera under her face and pointing up. She spent the whole hay ride looking down with this look of “what the hell? Why are you making me sit on this nasty stuff?” on her face.

Then we arrived at the pumpkin field and it didn’t get any better.

She stepped right on a rotten pumpkin, breaking through the shell in a giant squish and getting rotten pumpkin guts all over her foot. The pictures I took from the day crack me up because it’s like a series on disgust. She has the exact same look on her face in every single picture.

The tour came with two apples each, and that made her happy. She protected the apple with her life and gave anyone who came near a death glare. They were not going to get her apple.

She liked the apple so much that I went into their farm market and bought a whole bag of them. Did you know a bag of apples is called a peck? I suppose it is a bag of a certain size, but I had no idea it was a peck. Erik is quite the reader these days and read that it was a peck so wanted to know what a peck was. I tried to explain that it was a measurement and the bag was a peck. Round and round we went and neither of us know what a peck is, but he is sure that I am hiding the information from him. Maybe I should have googled it. Doh! Just now thought of that. Usually he just tells me “Uh, mommy, just go look it up on your computer.”

What on earth did we do before the days of instant information access? No wonder my brain gets so confused all the time and I can’t remember anything. My brain is full and I won’t stop filling it up with useless information.

I also bought a frozen apple walnut pie because I’ve heard the pies out there are fantastic. I was very skeptical, but it was really good. Yum yum yum. Not to be braggy, but I could make a pie just as good as this pie, but why would I want to? Pies are a ton of work. Buying a frozen pie that’s as good as homemade is a major win in my book.

Two very good pieces of news:

1) Kisha was once again my web jedi hero and saved the FFF, my fantasy book discussion site that I’ve had for years and years and years! I still need to figure out how it was compromised and get my laptop cleaned up, but the site is not a totally destroyed digital wasteland anymore.

2) I haven’t had a single bit of pain from my tooth extraction. It feels weird to have a big gaping hole in my gum, but there’s been no pain involved. I just wonder how I’m going to keep the hole clean. It could get pretty gross up in there. Does gum tissue fill in over time after a tooth extraction?

And now it’s time for bed. Whoo-hoo! Mike is still out of town, so I get to go sleep by myself with the baby. It always feels so strange to have him gone. The rhythm of his breathing is gone and I miss him. I am not a fan of these bimonthly trips to Arizona. I just looked up bimonthly and it can mean once every two months or twice a month. How’s that for confusing? In this case I mean once every two months. Way too often, but the other bimonthly would be much worse.