Farmer Jason

Last Thursday, Tonya, Carlton, Lewis, and I headed over to IU Southeast for a concert in their Children's Series. I remember reading about them when I was studying/working there, but, of course, I had no children at that time. The performances are free, although they aren't widely advertised (that I've seen, yet) and they seem to cater more to preschools/elementary schools. Anyway, we emailed, got on the list, and went to see Farmer Jason because it said he sang songs about farming and nature. I think he was a hit with the boys!

Carlton started clapping along right away

While Lewis was a little more skeptical :)

The farmer came on stage, singing and playing his guitar, so I think Lewis wasn't sure what was going on for the first few songs. Like, who is this guy and what is he doing?

Lewis and Carlton sat for a while and then stood to dance, and then at some point, they (or Tonya, I forget?) decided to share a seat, which was the funniest/cutest thing:

Personal space? What's that?

Lewis started to lean in and 'snuggle' which is when things went south. It was very cute while it lasted, though. :)

The show itself was just about an hour long--he sang songs about all sorts of different animals, a tractor, an oak tree, etc. I think the boys enjoyed themselves, so I'll have to remember to look into what shows are coming next year.

A Very Muddy Henry's Ark and Bugs, Bugs, Bugs

Last Wednesday, we headed out to Henry's Ark for the first time this spring. I didn't anticipate how wet and muddy everything would (still) be, but we managed to stay pretty clean, except for our shoes:

 Trying to avoid the puddles

He kind of froze as we were walking, unsure where to step. I tried to get him to follow me, but that only worked for so long. :)

 Lewis found the resident cat who withstood petting for a few seconds, before running off.

 :)

Lewis, stealing carrots from the goat. He'd give one to the goat and then eat one himself.

 :)

  Reaching up high to feed the big elk

That day after nap (hence the PJs), we headed outside to look for bugs. The Bergstroms had gotten him some bug-themed gifts for his 2nd birthday, but he wasn't really into looking at smaller/finer things last summer. They'd gotten him a Roly-Poly Playground, which is a little plastic dome with a bug-sized playground inside, and Lewis wanted to use it now that Juni (and Auntie Schwee) taught us proper bug-seeking techniques. I've found a couple of more bug playgrounds on clearance, so he has three domes now. It is a good thing, too, because he found uses for all three of them. One was the Worm Dome, another the Dead Bug Dome, and the other was for everything else. :)

Found a roly-poly!

Under a brick, just as you said, Auntie Schwee!

 My sweet boy :) 

Placing one of the two dead bugs we found--the exoskeletons from a locust and a beetle

It was a pretty successful first outing...the locust was especially exciting for me because it reminded me of looking for bugs as a kid at Grandma Lou's house and finding one on her tree out front. We also found a couple of tiny worms (centipedes?) and one lone earthworm. He seemed to really enjoy searching for them and then watching them 'play' in their domes--at one point he screamed out, 'THE WORM IS CLIMBING UP THE SLIDE!!!' and proceeded to crack up. I'm sure we will do this many more times this spring and summer.

Yay, Spring!

After the winter that wouldn't end, I think it's finally safe to say spring is here (despite a forecasted high in the 40s one day this week). We are moving forward--last week, Lewis helped me get some seedlings started indoors:

He was really helpful, scooping the dirt and patting it down.

We started some broccoli, zucchini, and bell peppers.

Another sign of spring--our first hike of the year! We headed out to Creasey Mahan last weekend to hike and play at the playground. Lewis agreed to the playground part, but he was a little hesitant on the hiking (I am NOT hiking). He was into it after the first 5 minutes or so: 

 Hitching a ride on Dad's back, at first (when he was still NOT hiking)

The trails were also pretty muddy, and he wasn't used to navigating that.

 Walking with Mama

We saw lots of wildlife/signs of wildlife! Kevin spotted a 'Cardinal Bird' (UL's mascot), and we saw tracks in the mud from deer, raccoon, and a big dog. At the pond, we spotted lots of tadpoles and turtles. Most of the turtles slipped back into the water as we got closer, but there was one who stuck around on the bank:

There it is! (to the left of Lewis) 

 Not too close, buddy!

 I was trying to get him to crouch down next to it--this was as close as he got. :)

Cheese!

It was a nice little hike in the woods and great to see so much animal activity. After hanging out with the turtle, Lewis was ready to move onto the playground! We'll definitely head out there again soon.

Boise Trip, Part Two

The second half of the trip was kind of dampened by Lewis getting sick. He had sort of a fever on Saturday afternoon/evening, and overnight Saturday he was a sweaty/fevered mess. Emily came over Sunday morning with medicines and snacks, and we decided to take the day 'off' to hang out at the hotel and hopefully let him get better. He was still not 100% the next day, but we decided to go ahead and go to the zoo since it was our last full day there.

Sickly Lewis Pete :(

He had a fever, cough, and runny nose.

We did go over to their house that evening for dinner and some more play time with the chickens:

 Juni and Hamburger Helper, the friendliest one

 Lewis petting Hamburger Helper (Joe named her that...)

The next day, it was onto the zoo!

  Sweet Otis :)

 The coolest giraffe slide!

 I think I tried to get them both to climb on the same animal, but they weren't having it.

It's MY elephant! It's MY gorilla! :) 

Cousins :)

 This one I would caption, 'I want to drive, NO, I want to drive!'

 ALMOST tall enough to reach those pedals. :)

Back at the house on our last evening, Juni and Auntie Schwee taught us how to look for bugs:

 Juni, Lewis, and Drina

 Checking out the chickens one last time

 We learned that the roly-poly bugs like to hide under rocks!

And we've since been looking for bugs at our house. Lewis wasn't really into it last summer, but we spent about an hour outside last week, studying worms, a locust exoskeleton, a dead beetle, etc. I was feeling my nature nerd-ery coming back a little. :)

 Hugs for Otis :)

We had an hour-long first flight from Boise to Denver that went very smoothly. Our flight to Louisville was about 2 1/2 hours, and much to my surprise, Lewis slept THE ENTIRE WAY. This was him, already asleep, as we were taxiing out to the runway, and he slept until we touched down in Louisville. I couldn't believe it. Granted, he was still not feeling well, did not nap the entire week, and didn't sleep as well overnight, either. Regardless, it was amazing.

Sweet dreams, Lew.

It was a great trip, and we can't wait to see them all again soon. :)

Trip to Boise, Part One

My goodness, it's been awhile. Lewis and I went to Boise over Auntie Em's spring break and had a great trip. It took us both a while to get adjusted back from the time difference, and I've fallen behind on posting. Plus the weather has been nicer, and we've been getting outside more.

Anyway, here's part one of our trip:

Our flights out were good--on time, even early into Boise. We bought a Kindle for Lewis to use on the plane, and he watched 10-20 minutes of a movie before he wanted to move onto something else. Thankfully I had enough snacks, movies and games on the Kindle, and looking-out-of-the-window time to fill our two flights.

Once we got to their house, Juniper was so excited for Lewis to come outside and see what was waiting for him in the chicken coop:

An egg!

She'd collected the other two but saved one for Lewis. :) 

 Otis and Auntie Schwee

 Making pizzas

For the first part of our trip, we stayed at the house of some of Emily and Joe's friends (we moved to a hotel the second part because they were coming home from their spring break trip). They had an 18 or 19-year-old cat, Zoe, that Lewis was obsessed with. Most cats he's encountered (especially Gma and Gpa T's cat, Maggie) run away from him, but Ms. Zoe barely moved at all (because she's so old). It worked out very well! He was so gentle with her and made it a point to find her every morning when we woke up and every evening when we returned to the house. She got LOTS of lovin's from him:

She was a very sweet girl. :)

 We went to the Discovery Center one morning:

 Lewis could have dropped in golf balls and watched them go down the spiral all morning long. :)

 Filling up his cart with groceries

Lewis and Juni had a lot of fun in this triangle of mirrors. At one point, Emily, Otis, and I got inside, too, and you could see like 50+ reflections of us all. Pretty trippy. :)

We took a trip one day to the MK Nature Center:

 Juni was hooting. :)

 It's a GOOSE (says Lew)!

I'm not sure that he realized the goose was hissing at him. We kept our distance.

 J&L with some rainbow trout

 Otie Man, watching some little fish in the tanks inside

Our trip wouldn't be complete without a visit to the water table!