Farm Fun Day

Oh, how I do look forward to Farm Fun Day. Not sure how many years I've been hosting, I think this may be the third. There's nothing very special about the day, just a big play date at the farm, but it is so much fun to get a big group of mamas together for a pitch-in and let the kids run wild.

 The striped tights were a big hit this year.

I couldn't believe that even though the air temperature was only upper 70's, the kids couldn't wait to get into the water! So much fun to be had.

 

Lots of baby-passing, baby-nursing, and baby-holding up in here. Seeing as how we had two La Leche League leaders and lots of members, there was much talk of breastfeeding, but conversation also veered to fit-throwing, skee ball tournaments, tattoos, canning, and recipes. What a lovely community of mothering. It doesn't get much better than this.It took me awhile to find a group of women to call my mothering community. I'm so glad that I have. My husband joked a couple years ago about my bestie Rhonda, "If I'd have known how good she was for Molly, I would have bought her one years ago!" If only it were that easy! These are the kind of women that are raising great kids, would give you the shirt off their backs and are glad to was a few dishes.

Round about two, the pushing and screaming became a little more frequent and we all knew it was time to pack up and say goodbye for now. But, there's always next year.Thanks for a great day, ladies!

Pioneer Dress #2

 This is Lila's "Laura dress". It is made from a homespun-type fabric we bought from Joann. I followed an old pattern Simplicity 9708 that my friend Diane had given me. I used the new version of this pattern for Maggie's dress.  Lila wore this outfit to piano lessons today. I don't know what her teacher must think. Between her bike helmets, outlandish fashion, and pioneer dresses, my girl certainly has her own styles. I miss the (very short) days when I could dress her like a doll where everything matched from head-to-toe.  These days, if I try to make suggestions, she calmly tells me, "Mommy, I'm different than this family, please let me wear it". She has her own style. You can't tell here, but under the dress she is wearing her purple patent leather flats because "they are the most old-fashioned shoes" she owns. I know some day she will probably come to me (as I did to my mother) and say "How could you let me leave the house like that!?" I think I will calmly reply "Just wait, my darling, wait until you have a daughter of your own, then we'll talk".

As a funny side note, I mentioned that Maggie wore her dress to church last weekend. Afterward, word got back to me that a middle-school age young woman saw Maggie wearing her dress and asked her mother flatly, "Did you make me wear dresses like that when I was little?" To which her crafty mother simply responded, "No". The young woman was relieved and said "Good." 

I do hope my girls look back on all this and smile. I do hope they remember these days with fond and joyful memories as I know I will. I hope they know their mother loved them well.