South Mountain Creamery - Fall Festival

For the last 2 months, we have been getting our milk delivered to our home directly from a creamery (dairy farm).  South Mountain Creamery treats its cows humanely, ensures that no antibiotics get into the milk, and bottles its own milk.  There is nothing like getting milk that was literally just milked from the cow yesterday! 

A couple of weekends ago, the creamery had their annual Fall Festival.  We got to visit the farm, see the cows getting milked, learn about the entire process and see the "behind the scenes" inner-workings of a dairy farm.  It was simply fascinating to learn - for example, the creamery does pasteurize, but only to 164.4 degrees F, which is legally safe.  This kills the bad stuff, but leaves the "good stuff" behind.  Traditional milk factories pasteurizes up to 190 degrees F.  This allows the milk to have a longer shelf life, but it also kills the stuff that's good for you in the milk too.  Little nuggets of information like this all day!

Of course, the kids couldn't care less about all this.  They were just thrilled to meet the calves, see the cows getting milked and play around the farm.  So much fun on a beautiful fall day!

Emma and Lex got their faces painted.  We came home with a kitty cat and a jack o' lantern.

Midway through our visit, one of the farmers came up with his tractor and started asking kids if they wanted to try driving it themselves.  Both our big girls hopped on, and we sent them each off with a stranger, on a tractor.   Lots of trust.

Not only is the milk yummy, but the ice cream they make with the milk is yummy.  Tessa loved it too!

Reenacting the Sound of Music

Alexa has been two wheeling it everywhere she can.  Every single day that we go to the bus stop to pick up Emma, she insists on riding her bike there and back.  Every chance she gets, she pops on her helmet and scoots on her bike.  So we finally decided to get a bike trailer so that Arturo could take all the girls out on more extended bike rides instead of just around the neighborhood.

That was 3 weeks ago.  And since then, he has been out with all the girls every single weekend - biking all around.  He and the girls have discovered new playgrounds in our neighborhood and have worked on their endurance as the rides have gotten longer. 

This past Sunday when it was 70 and sunny, all 5 of us put on our helmets (Tessa LOVES her helmet!) got on our bikes, and rode the 2 miles down to the local ice cream shop.  We all got cones (except for Tessa, who got to have as much as she wanted of the four flavors) and then rode back home.  Heaven!

Here are pictures from our first test ride with Tessa a few weeks back.

The Shirt Says it all

Oh how I love this kid!

Upping the Ante

In our family, I am not too proud to admit that my pancakes are legendary.  My kids love my pancakes.  One weekend when my parents were here visiting, they offered to take the girls out for a weekend breakfast.  Both declined, saying they wanted Mom's pancakes instead!  (My heart swells)

Well, in the last few months, Arturo and I have had a weekend tradition of letting each other sleep in.  Arturo takes the "early" shift - waking up with Tessa and then with the big girls.  Once I'm awake (usually around 8:30) he then finishes breakfast and goes back for a morning nap.  This way, we both try to catch up on a little sleep over the weekend.

Imagine my surprise, when two weekends ago, I came downstairs to see my three kids gnoshing on... HOMEMADE PANCAKES.  Arturo was standing over the stovetop flipping pancakes, and all three girls were quietly munching.  And on top of that, Arturo made them this, freestyle:

To add insult to injury, this past Saturday I woke up to him making them chocolate chip pancakes!!!

Game On, I say.