Out and About

There's a cute little ice cream parlor near my grandma's house with an outdoor garden area in the back to eat ice cream. But the best part is that they have sorbet for Bauer to eat!My uncle keeps talking about these back roads where you can literally see hundreds of deer out in the evening. We finally decided to give it a try! While we didn't see herds with hundreds of deer, we probably saw close to 50 total and the drive through the farms in the bluffs was gorgeous!Cadance fell asleep soon after we got in the car and Bryce and Bauer played quietly and nicely together the whole time! The most obnoxious part of the ride was probably me! I was sitting in the middle seat of the van and kept leaping forward with my camera to take pictures. Next time Rachael will know better, just let me have shotgun!We kept our yearly tradition of going to Lark's Toys alive. We didn't go mini-golfing like we usually do, but we had plenty of fun walking around and looking/playing with all the fun toys!Cadance found herself a little shopping cart and pushed around Kitty and a sparkly clown fish (that is now a member of our family) the whole time we were there. She added a few other items as well but those magically ended up back on the shelves...We rode the carousel with is usually tons of fun...except that both Bauer and Cadance wanted to ride the fish and I didn't know that until Cadance started crying when she had to ride the seahorse instead! I just love that picture of Bauer...the one where he has the same expression on his face as the goldfish. Having fun??We also went out to our friend Megan's house one morning. The four boys ran in and out of the house, sprayed each other with water toys, and played and played and played. It took Cadance a little longer to warm up to all the kids but she had a lot of fun playing with all their kitchen toys! Once she did decide to be friendly, the girls hosted a tea party. It was Cadance's first tea party ever!We always go swimming a lot when we're at my mom's house. She has a family pass so we're over there at least three times a week. This year Bryce was brave and went under the mushroom...and when we looked over Bauer had gone under there, too!! Bauer's always been really cautious in the water so this was huge! We also spent quite a bit of time in the deeper part of the pool which, again, is a huge step for Bauer. He doesn't let anyone hold him (or touch him at all, for that matter) when we're in the water. I'm so glad that he's getting tall enough that we don't really have to worry about that anymore!Cadance likes swimming as long as there aren't a lot of people around...which is pretty much her attitude about anything we do!We did go out to Olive Garden with everyone to celebrate Rachael's birthday! We were a little put off when we discovered that they've really changed the kid's menu and the meal that all three kids always get wasn't on there anymore!Bauer's been talking about going to the Winona County Fair since last year just so we could see the baby chicks! If chicks didn't grow up into chickens we might have a couple as pets! That boy just loves them so much and has passed that love onto Cadance.We didn't ride any rides while we were there, but we did get to see a really eclectic and totally outdated marionette show! We adults thought it was the weirdest thing ever but all the kids were totally into it! We really couldn't believe it. Oh well, as long as they're having a good time! And Grammie made the fair that much more fun by treating each of the kids to their own bag of cotton candy. Mmm-mm!!