Down on the Farm

Ok, I am going to fast forward a little bit and talk about how we spent our actual day today; however, I’m still going to work on my backlog of days I still want to document and remember for the girls.

Today, we got invited to an event called “Down on the Farm” at the Darien Nature Center which is a few towns away. We hit the road hoping to drop by Costco first, but dear Lord…the traffic. It took us forever to get to Darien, so we decided to postpone our Costco run until after the event.

We didn’t really know what to expect, but when we parked the car and heard Taylor Swift playing from loud speakers down on  the open lawn, we knew it was going to be a good time.

First stop, pony rides. Mia hasn’t been a big fan of pony rides. They scare her, but this time…she loved it and decided to do it twice! Emi decided to sit this one out. The venue was just far too crowded for her, so it took her a while to warm up to things.

While Mia was riding the pony for a second time, Emi and Ten visited the photo booth.

Next stop, face painting. My kids have a love/hate relationship with face painting. They love to have it done, look at it for a second, but then hate to keep it on.

A rosy cheeked Emi with a butterfly. It was so incredibly hot and humid out.

Hmm…what did Mia choose?

A snake! These were definitely not the best face painters, but the girls didn’t mind.

Our next farm adventure: milking a cow. Mia assured us that it was just water.

Next, we found some shade and decided to grab popsicles and lunch.

Playing with friends while we wait.

Mia went with a cheeseburger, and Emi just had a few fries. I usually don’t eat at these things because it is just so expensive, but decided to go for it this time. Ten went and grabbed me a grilled cheese from Mobile Melts. Gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches that were featured on Food Network….umm…yes, please.

What did I choose?

Jalapeno popper with bacon! OMG…this thing was so good. I washed it down with some ice water sitting in the shade. Side note: I had Kai in the baby carrier, so Ten did all of the running into the heat for us.

After lunch, we checked out a little bit more of the festival. Sorry for the photo overload if you are still patiently reading.

Our owl and mustache baby.

It was so hot, and we were getting kind of miserable (especially me and Ten), so we headed into the air-conditioning for a few activities. It was amazing that Kai slept through the entire thing!

Nature Bookmarks.

They also got to pet a guinea pig and a few bunnies, and we followed this with the outdoor petting zoo.

Last stop, tot lot. We let the girls play in the water tables before heading home (or actually to Costco).

This event was so fun; however, I always groan when adults have to pay to enter these things. Not really worth the $20 to watch my kids pet a goat….but whatever. On the positive side, we were able to find some Usborne sticker books (our favorite), and they had plenty of free iced water. It was a great summer experience.

The Matsuri and Birthday-mania continues

 Still catching up on what we did over the weekend. On Sunday (May 21), we went to Norwalk to go to a family friend’s birthday. It was a very low key event, but a private chef did come and cater it. They served the most amazing tea and sandwiches. We also had some really good pasta salad and other picnic foods.

The kids enjoyed snacking on fruit and helping themselves to lots of herbal tea.

  

While the adults chatted, the kids basically had free reign of the house and outside. They were running around every which way just having a great time.

 

 After staying for about two hours, we decided to leave early so that we could go to “The Matsuri” in Harrison, NY. We stayed at the matsuri long enough for the girls to get to play six games each and to cash in their tokens for prizes. 

Emi playing the pitching game (not sure what this game is called). I dont think she could have gotten any closer.

  

Woohoo! She knocked a few off and surprisingly actually missed a few.

  

Mia did an awesome job and won tons of tokens.

  

Here the girls were playing a ball catching game. Apparently, this is where the yo-yo game was…but they ran out of yo-yos before we got there. The girls were pretty disappointed. Crazily enough some families would walk by and have like 10 yo-yos for one kid! We love the yo-yos too, but not sure that much!

  

Ring toss hosted by Mia and Emi’s current Japanese school. I’m not sure how much longer they will attend this place though. It’s pretty far from our house, and Emi literally breaks out in a rash from the stress of going there. Maybe a private tutor is the way to go?

  

Golf. The guy that ran this game was so super nice! He took quite a bit of time teaching Mia how to hold the gold club. He was so patient and cheerful.

   
 

Me and Emi took a break from the sun under this nice tree.

So, a few things.  The festival this year…..not as good as last. 😦 For example, the Japanese bakery wasn’t there this year. The girls realy wanted to grab a few things…but they were out of luck. Also, the food area was taken up by a giant tent selling Indian food?? I love Indian food, but you kind of want some Japanese food at a matsuri. Indian just felt out of place…..also lots of fusion options….no thanks.

Secondly, when we go to these sort of events….I totally hang out in the background and try to let Ten do his thing with the girls. It’s not because I don’t want to join in….it’s more because Japanese people tend to speak to our kids in English if they see me….but if I’m out of sight….then they use Japanese….so I’m like a creeper in the background at these things….unfortunately.

Anyway, after about an hour and a half, we headed to the grocery store and grabbed a few things for the week. Then we dropped Mia and Ten off at home and headed to our second birthday party of the day.

The second party was held at the Darien Nature Center. It was our first time there, and it was such a great venue for a birthday party. Emi actually said she was too tired to go, but these are pretty good friends…..so off we went.

The party started with a nature walk. Emi was really into trying to complete thr scavenger hunt card.

  

After the walk, we got to go inside and pet lots of critters. Some of them included bunnies, turtles, a hedgehog, snakes, and some lizards. The kids really enjoyed this part.

  
  

Finally, we headed downstairs to the basement where a very cute party room was set up. The theme was a beach party, and the decorations were adorable. Also, the goody bags were little sand buckets filled with things like sunglasses, beach balls, water guns, and more. Very fun.

  

The kids were served pizza, raw carrots, and fresh strawberries. Unfortunately, Emi was way just so overly excited about her noise maker that she forgot to eat. I had to keep going over and remind her to take a bite.

  

Simple theme and cute table.

We sang “Happy birthday,” and then ate the best cake ever. I’m honestly not much of a birthday cake fan, but they asked the adults to please have some as they just had so much left. I had barely eaten, so I took a piece….and omg. It was not overly sweet at all and had only a thin layer of icing. The center had some sort of custard cream in it…..so good. 

After Emi cleaned up her trash, we said our good byes and headed out the door with the rest of the guests. We finally made it back home at nearly six o’clock. It was a jam packed day, so we came home and crashed. I feel like even though there wa a lot going on this day, we managed to handle it in a way that didn’t feel overwhelming.