Hess' Corn Maze

I planned a trip this year to Hess' Corn Maze for the teens at church. We had three other families come with us and they each brought a few extra kids along. Ken, Henry, Frances and I were able to stick together in a group to ourselves. The teens split up into their own groups and set out through the maze on their own. We went through the corn maze with varying degrees of success and then set off for the other fun things that they have there. There is a straw bale maze with different tunnels to crawl through. They have a cute wooden cow set up with udders that you can actually milk!

There are old fashioned water pumps with gutters that you can race ducks through (with a convenient "napping table" set up just behind it!)and

a great big slide built into the hill.

Did I mention the orchestra area? It has lots of metal objects suspended from a wooden board. You can bang on the objects and make up a song about whatever you choose!

P.S. Just as I turned the camera off, she added "and Grandma" to the end of her song. So don't worry Grandma, you were in the finale too, I just cut you off. Sorry!!

Frances turns 5!!

My little baby has turned 5! I look back on the years and think about how quickly they have flown by. I bought the #5 candle for her cake and commented to myself that seemed like just last week that I bought the #1. (Of course then I remembered that it was just a few months ago that I did buy a #1 for Henry's birthday party!)

We went to church on Sunday morning. As soon as I parked the car Frances said, "Mommy, when you are five do get to have Communion?" She was disappointed that she would have to wait a few more years. ) On a side note: on the way to school Monday morning she wanted to hold a candle I had in the car. I heard her mumbling and asked her what she was doing. "Playing First Communion" was her reply!)

After church we came home and had lunch. Then she and Henry went to take "naps." I use the quotations because he slept, but she didn't. She faked it really well, though, and really, that's fine with me. We got a few last minutes ready for the party and then woke her up for a birthday phone call from her godmother in Honduras. Thanks for calling, Marylee!

The guests arrived and we had presents and cake. She is mostly excited because she can now chew gum! I think it was when she was about 3-1/2, she asked me for some gum. I told her at the time that she couldn't have gum until she was 5. She took that as gospel and told people that when they offered her gum. It seems like it was just a few weeks ago, but it was a year and a half; and now she can have gum! She went through about 10 pieces last night! She is very responsible about it-she knows to keep it in her mouth and throw it in the trash when she is done. We talked about places where you cannot chew gum (bed, car, school, church, etc) and she was fine with that. Ken and I are not regular gum chewers, so I feel certain that this will be a once in a while thing for her-but she sure feels grown up with it!

We had a great time with my parents, Ken's parents, my brother, John, and his wife, Jessica, my brother, Alan, and his pumpkin collection, Ken's brother, Dan, and his wife, Nikki, along with their daughter, Abby, and our friend Julie.

A Day Off...

Wednesday is usually my day to work at the church, but Henry had a doctor's appointment right in the middle of productivity time, so I took the whole day off. I kept Frances home from school and Ken had the day off as well. It was nice having an unplanned day.

Henry had his one-year check-up today. He is 20.2 pounds and 31 inches tall. According to the chart from the doctor's office, his height seems to be in the 90th percentile (YEAH!) and his weight is about 15th-20th. Not sure how he is so skinny since all he does is eat, but that's what the scale says. He got two shots today and was a real trooper about it. I held him as the nurse did it. He smelled the alcohol and gave me a look that said he knew something was going to happen. He cried briefly, but then he found his thumb and was quiet by the time I left.

We got home and he took a nap. Ken and Frances had gone out to the store, but got home shortly after we did. Frances was supposed to eat lunch and then nap, but of course, she never went to sleep. What am I going to do with her? I would be fine with her skipping her nap if she wasn't such a pill by 6pm. I took a short nap and then had to go out to a meeting at church.



This afternoon I went out and filled up the kiddie pool. The kids put on their suits and jumped in. I put up our umbrella to keep the sun off of them, but it made the water cold and poor little Henry was shivering while we was crawling around the pool.
He also discovered how to get in and out of the pool by himself. We ended up putting the Little Tykes slide into the pool and both kids got a kick out of sliding down into the water. Henry did it head first most times!

Check out his "I don't really like the feel of grass, but I have somewhere to go" crawl. It's precious!!