Little Farm

 

Meliss showed us the cutest place on Monday - Little Farm! The farm is miniature sized and tons of cute farm animals live there. The best part? You are allowed to bring lettuce and celery to feed the animals.  On our way there, Gabriela was saying "Aminals, food".

 

We saw turkeys and baby goslings, hens, baby hens, roosters, a giant mama pig and her five little piglets, bunnies, goats, sheep, rams, and cows. When we first got there, Gabriela was a little nervous and wouldn't let me put her down, "mommy, hold you!" 

Chaney showed her how it's done.  Gabriela would grab a tiny piece of lettuce and say, "here birdies" and drop the lettuce on the floor.  She'd get more lettuce, but wasn't about to actually hold it until the birds grabbed their treats.

 

The goats were super hungry, what a shocker! They were so excited to eat, and with some help from extra long pieces of lettuce, Gabriela finally held onto her veggies long enough for the goats to grab them right from her.  She really got a kick out of it.

 

Just look at that excited face!

  

Gabriela thought it was so amazing, she'd bend over backwards in utter delight after feeding the goats and immediately ask Auntie 'Liss for more.

 

She got a little more courageous by the time we got to the sheep.

 

Chaney is such a sweet cousin.  Just look at him helping Gabriela to do it right! 

I just love this pic of Chaney and Auntie Meliss loving on Gabriela. We all had a great time.  

After we had visited all the animals and washed up, we stopped for a little snack and, apparently, some yoga.

 

Mama and son enjoying the sunny walk back.

 

Gabriela played on the playground before we hopped in the car to go home.  Thanks for showing us the Little Farm, Meliss!  We will definitely be back!

Happy Birthday, Chaney!

 

Chaney turned nine and had a very exciting camo-military themed birthday party.  Here are the kids in line (saluting) for the obstacle course that Nate and Lane put together for them. As soon as the kids arrived, they all started chasing each other through the house and backyard with every toy weapon imaginable. After the obstacle course, they had a grenade water balloon fight and basically ran around until it was time for food and cake, and then quickly resumed their battles.  Everyone had a wonderful time.

  

Going through the obstacle course

Go, Beau!  Swinging on the course, almost to the end! This little dude decided to climb a ladder after he was through with the course and try to shoot at other kids during their turns. As you can see from the photos, they took this course very seriously!  It was a HUGE hit!  They just kept wanting to do the course over and over again. And, I don't mean to brag or anything, but Chaney The B-day Boy got the fastest time! Go, Chaney!

 

Boys and their weapons

 

Chaney's cake, complete with army lego dudes and chocolate rocks!   

Just look at that birthday boy!

Ellie and the bunny.  She got second place in the obstacle course race.  And she was so cute, she said, "This party is surprisingly fun, since I'm a girl!" Chaney was so sweet opening all his presents. Every picture I got was of him with this look of pure joy and utter excitement from each of his presents.  He was thrilled and so thankful.  What a sweetie.

 

At the end of the party, some kids were drawing with chalk on the sidewalk. Gabriela shocked Lane and me by exclaiming at her drawing, "A BANANA!" Yes, my child drew a banana.  That little budding artist!

The Children's Discovery Museum

 

The first Wednesday of the month is free day at the Bay Area Children's Museum in Sausalito. So we went with this cute little guy and Gabriela. 

 

While Chaney and Uncle Lane learned all about outer space, I took Gabriela to the art building. She loved eating snacks the best.

 

She also had fun running around and eating outside on the steps.  Gabriela surprised me by saying, "smile!" when I took a photo of her and flashed me this really cheesy smile.

 

The outdoor area is really cool. They had a big boat which Gabriela explored, a high lookout area that the kids could climb, and lots of other cool areas we didn't explore all the way.  Next time we visit, we'll have lots of new stuff to see. 

One of the outdoor areas where we spent a LOT of time was the GRAVEL PIT.  Check out Chaney!

 

Gabriela worked so hard to transfer gravel from her shovel into the little hole.  Most of the time, all the gravel would fall on the floor before she lifted her shovel high enough to get to the hole.  But look at that concentration and determination!

She had more luck transferring gravel around with a cup.  

 

We also played in the Tot Spot.  Here, Gabriela is going through a tunnel and checking out the water along the way.

 

Gabriela the skunk

 

Climbing up more stairs, one of her favorite things in the whole wide world.

 

Chaney did some fishing before we left and showed us a whole row of buildings we didn't know about until it was time to leave.  We'll just have to check those out next time!  We had a great visit. 

The Interwebs

You remember Gabriela's friend, Keady.  Well, obviously they've been missing each other.  Gabriela asks about Keady and fondly looks at her pictures of them together.  Keady asks her mom if Gabriela will be at school and even asked about Gabriela when she saw some sandals at Target that looked like Gabriela's.  Keady's mom Rhonda had a good idea to schedule a video chat for the girls.

After some minor technical difficulties, we made our video and voice connection and it was so sweet.  Gabriela said, "Keady!!  Keady's mommy! Keady's daddy!" Then she introduced her family, "my mommy! My daddy!"  The girls kissed the computer screens and then it was downhill from there.

Poor Keady got so excited about seeing Gabriela talking to her that she kept leaving her computer to run to the front door to see Gabriela.  Whe she wasn't there, Keady started crying.  This was not our desired reaction.  We decided to try again soon.

After we disconnected, Gabriela said, "I want more Keady, more Rhonda"

Gilroy Gardens

Monday we went to Gilroy Gardens with Auntie Theresa, Andrew, Andrew's BFF Skylar, and her mommy.  As soon as we arrived we met up with Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Nate, Auntie Meliss, Chaney, Beau, Uncle Ian, Auntie Adie, Claire, Natalie, and Auntie Ann!  We had a wonderful time with the family!

 

As soon as I buckled Gabriela up in this cute little mini-carousel, I realized that I wasn't allowed to stand on it next to her.  I got so nervous and asked what they'd do if she didn't like it. The lady assured me they would stop the ride if needed.  Gabriela was excited and saying "horsie!" But as soon as she started going around, she didn't look as excited. In fact, every time she saw us, she started saying, "no horsie, no horsie!" Poor baby.  We asked them to stop the ride.  We didn't try any other solo rides that day.

 

Andrew and Skylar are such good buddies.  They walked around the park together holding hands and laughing. Skylar has introduced Andrew to her family before as her HUSBAND. She got kind of jealous any time Andrew held hands with Gabriela or his Auntie Elena.

  

Daddy and Gabriela

 

While we were waiting in line for a little kid ride, I used my super paparazzi style skills to snap this photo of Auntie Ann and Uncle Ian on the big-kid Banana Split ride. Grandpa, Chaney and Claire also rode this one, but they are kind of covered by the tree.

 

Beau on the spinning strawberry ride in Uncle Lane's hat.  Gabriela loved this ride.  She got the hang of waving to everyone like a princess during the ride, and when it was over said, "more, more more! more strawberry!"

 

We all hopped on the big carousel.  I was happy that I could ride with Gabriela.  She liked it much better this time around. Lane took this photo of Grandpa and the girls in one of the mirrors of the carousel.

  

Uncle Lane, Claire and Natalie and Gabriela rode on this "mild thrill" hot air balloon ride.  Gabriela was saying "balloon sky!" Lane said she liked it just fine, as long as he had both arms around her.  When he let go with one arm to wave to someone she'd say "no balloon!"

 

When the ride was over, Gabriela said to all her family audience, "balloon sky!" and pointed up into the sky.  She then proceeded to hop onto another cart instead of exiting the ride.  After we pulled her off, she told me "Daddy balloon sky!  Mommy balloon sky?" She loved it.

 

Later on, after a train ride and on the way to lunch, Gabriela asked for Natalie to hold her, "Nah-nee hold you?" Natalie happily obliged

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Gabriela doesn't appear to be too excited in this picture, but I think it was just because she was concentrating on keeping her arms up, which she did through the whole ride, that little thrill seeker.  When we got off she was crying, "more ride, more ride, more ride, WHOA!" She pointed and was totally over the more ride thing when she saw this: 

Gabriela then proceeded to run through the playground going on the slide and going non-stop until she ran into my arms, twirled my hair and requested a "milk-bottle"

 

Gabriela had a total blast at Gilroy Gardens. She was sound asleep after exactly two minutes in the car, before we'd even exited the parking lot. She proceeded to nap for THREE hours.  She was wiped out from all that family fun.