Yu Two Today

We didn't really have any plans for Yuula' birthday. We knew we'd have Grandma and Grandpa for breakfast, Aunt Danielle sometime around lunch and somehow we convinced ourselves that it was Tuesday and we had a CSA pickup. We kinda based the day around it. We wanted to take Yuula to see some animals but the best place was an hour north and closed at 6. Plus rain was forecast for 4pm and we had to pickup CSA between 3 and 7, an hour south. The timeline wasn't working out and suddenly Laura brought up Country Junction and a deal was struck. Maybe because it's the only place outside of Lancaster to get Jake & Amos corn salsa and we just ran out last night. Happy Birthday Yuula! You're getting Amish corn salsa. Dani arrived and we went.

The girls fed ducks. She loved it.

She sprinkled corn on top of goats. She loved that.

She pointed and yelped at chickens. Loved.

Test drove their various vehicles.

Loving.

The girls competed in a hula hoop contest. I won.

Photo op with a dragon.

She saw puppies and fish, bunnies and thought ferrets were hilarious. Who doesn't? We rocketed back towards the farm only to realize about 100 yards from the entrance that it was in fact Monday and our pickup was tomorrow. We laughed. Then decided to go pickup some beer. Happy birthday Yuula. You're going to watch us get drunk.

Yuula had communicated to us (we think) that she wanted pizza for dinner. Maybe we had a preconceived notion. But we thought it'd be fun to let her make her own pizza, get her hands dirty. It was and she did.

Yes more cheese made it onto the floor than the pies but hey, she loved singing "sprinkle sprinkle sprinkle".

Gifts were displayed much to her delight.

She's still not sure about the whole candle in the cake thing.

She couldn't wait to test out her new umbrella. Good thing it was raining.

She took right to destroying her new coloring books.

And she really took to the magnadoodle, a toy right in her wheelhouse since she can fill up a page faster than we can cut down the trees, this will probably save the rainforest.

We also got her a starter dollhouse (assembly required) and aunt Danielle made her a nice wooly poncho for the quickly upcoming cold and some awesome new books that she then read to her during some aunty cuddle time while downing her night night milk. Then she went right to bed as we snapped this photo at 9:50pm, exactly two years after she was born.

Then Laura cried...

If They Don't Come Out, She's Going In

Feeding ducks is hard. I mean, if you don't want to fall in that is. Yuula didn't seem to care about the murky depths as much as she really wanted to get her hands on one of those mallards.

She had more fun than we thought necessary and we got rid of our stale bread. Win Win.

Then it was time to leave...

So Throw Those Curtains Wide

It was a family day. We headed out with no real purpose or mission. There were doors, ducks, sandwich swapping and sore legs. In the end, it's the kind of day that rejuvenates and refills the tank that's so easily depleted.

Sweet Creams challenge is on. Eat every sandwich on the menu by ordering one each and splitting it. This time around it was the Mendocino/Tuscany combination. We got a thing going.

After just a small sampling of yardwork, and then a good bit of test riding, all feet needed to get off the ground.

ahhh

Dorothy, Alpaca & Medeival Helmets

Yesterday we set out to finally find our seasonal pumpkin, of what would become our holiday jack-o-lantern. We like to do the hayride/pumpkin patch/cider donut thing, but this year free time was at all time low and the few mornings we've had free had all been rain outs. This must improve going into next year. Nonetheless we had a nice little morning exploring the Country Junction and discovering the literally thousands of little surprises they had to offer.



Ducks, turkeys, alpacas, pigs, roosters, hens, sheep, goats... all kids of doofy looking animals. Yuula couldn't decide if she loved them , were scared of them or wanted to run them over with a toy lawnmower.







Then we went inside the building. This place is like a Home Depot, Home Goods, Whole Foods all wrapped into one with an uncanny likeness to a Stew Leonard's. These are all good things. It got a little wild tho. Dinosaurs next leather couches next to sailing paraphernalia, some might say the Country Junction could use a little strategic organization, but I say it all added to the adventure.

We tried on some battle armor.





We spent more than our fair share of time in the home theatre demo, but Yuula found it more interesting to mop the stage than appreciate the breakthrough of technicolor.



We did eventually make it to the outdoor market where they had thousands of pumpkins to choose from along with a haunted house, a ferris wheel, a pet shop, a Christmas shoppe, pumpkin chuckin', a lifesize pirate ship, the list goes on really.



We picked out a pumpkin and got on our way. We were there much longer than we expected but we didn't really know what we were getting ourselves into. Maybe this is better than hay in my underpants.

Oh and here's the lucky winner...

A Bad Day Turned Better

I had to go down to Lancaster the other day to take care of some paperwork so I could get paid for work I did back in the summer. FBI fingerprinting, child abuse clearances, legal citizen stuff to make sure I'm not a danger to the kids. Good to know they're taking care of this months after I first stood in front of a kid. Anyhow...

We decided to not make a total wash of one of Laura's precious off-days and both go down and maybe make it enjoyable. We planned to go on a covered bridge tour, but we found so much more than covered bridges. How lame does that sound? Pretty. And that's fine.


You can smell the cows coming.

Laura acts like she built this.

Ne'er a greener field found.

The Amish do play volleyball. Their ball actually rolled into
the road in front of our car. I got out and threw it
back to them. They were quite receptive.

The last of the bridges.

Checking structural integrity.

We hope to one day live near a covered bridge that runs over a stream that flows thru our backyard, like this place...

Think it's for sale?

Now we were hungry. The tour led us into downtown Lititz. We went to Danner's Deli and had what else, pretzel sandwiches.

Always on the hunt for the perfect jelly cupboard.

This one comes close. Only thing wrong was the price tag.

We found some inspiration for kitchen redesign.

We did.

We did this too.

Like a kid in a candy store. I got chocolate covered coconut clusters and she got butter toffee peanuts. They're already gone.

Yup that says kangaroo. You ever eaten kangaroo?

I have.

Ducks!! Wonder if they're hungry. Good thing there's a duck food dispenser nearby.

They're thinking about it. I did get one to eat right out of my hand.

All of the sudden there were thousands of ducks. We fled the scene.

Which one is real?