Saturday Snapshot-Rides and animals!

 A couple weeks ago we took one last trip to our local amusement park on their last day of the season.

 The kids road some rides, trick or treated with characters and dinosaurs and visited the petting zoo.

 It was a low key kind of day with some really nice weather!

 

 We took our time and didn't rush.

 They visited all the animals.

 Petting some

 while not being so sure of some of the others.

 We decided not to feed them this time, as none of them were all that interested in food with so many little hands offering it.

 This was our last ride on our way out of the park.

I'm going to miss these days when they decide they are all too big for the kiddie area!

It's Monday, What are you reading?

I've missed out on doing this for a week or more as I haven't been doing much reading.  Balance can be hard to find, I know, but I am working on it.  I did finish reading a few things in the last few weeks, I promise.  Here is what I finished:

 

The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan

Kill Order by James Dashner

Starting Over by Debbie Macomber

 

I hope there are more that I just can't think of right now, but I am afraid that may be all I have finished lately. 

Saturday Snapshot- Fall fun!

 We finally had a weekend with no plans to spend as a family so we spent some time on the land we bought last summer.

 A lot of the trees have already lost their leaves, but we found a lot of pretty views to see and explore.

I wish I could get this one to rotate as it looked so nice going down the path.  I am sure I will figure it out at some point!

Saturday Snapshot-Farm Tour

Last weekend our area hosted a farm tour weekend.  Some local farms were open to visitors to learn about what they do and how things work.

We visited Pappy's Orchard and watched how apples are sorted and washed.  The apples were dumped on this conveyor belt and rolled to a washing area.

After being washed they were dried by being rolled over this cloth.

Then the rolled down an area with holes for different size apples that they rolled into depending on when they fell through the holes.  Were they 2 inches or 2 1/4 and so on.

Each area was somewhat padded so they did not get bruised.

If they did not fall through any of the holes they went to the over 3 inch area to a round spinning table.

The farm also had turkeys from tiny

to huge!  This one was 51 pounds.  We joked with our kids that he weighs more than two of them do!

The turkey farm was across the field so the farmer just brought a few over to this barn to show visitors.

It's Monday, What are you reading?

This was a very meager reading week for me.  I have things started, but finishing them has been the issue.  I've been binge watching Homeland on Showtime with  my husband.  We finished season one and are working our way through season two.  I know we are still behind, but we are getting there. 

Here is my week so far in finished books:
Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls Essays, Etc. by David Sedaris
Courting Carolina by Janet Chapman

Hope everyone else is having more luck carving out time to read!

Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris (audio)

Overview from Barnes and Noble:

"Sedaris is a remarkably skilled storyteller and savvy essayist....And based, on this latest collection, he's getting only better." —-Los Angeles Times

A guy walks into a bar car and...
From here the story could take many turns. When the guy is David Sedaris, the possibilities are endless, but the result is always the same: he will both delight you with twists of humor and intelligence and leave you deeply moved.

Sedaris remembers his father's dinnertime attire (shirtsleeves and underpants), his first colonoscopy (remarkably pleasant), and the time he considered buying the skeleton of a murdered Pygmy. The common thread? Sedaris masterfully turns each essay into a love story: how it feels to be in a relationship where one loves and is loved over many years, what it means to be part of a family, and how it's possible, through all of life's absurdities, to grow to love oneself.

With LET'S EXPLORE DIABETES WITH OWLS, David Sedaris shows once again why he is widely considered the "the funniest writer in America" (O, the Oprah Magazine).

My thoughts:
I am ashamed to say that the first David Sedaris book I read for a book club was a chore for me.  It was Me Talk Pretty One Day and the first half was a slog for me, the second half I really enjoyed.  Part of the problem was that I had to read it all in a day to be ready for the book club meeting, but the rest had to have been me.  I wonder now if I would enjoy it all if I read it again.

Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls was a fun escape.  One of the things I love about his essays is that they are highly entertaining and provide really good stopping points when you need to go on to something else.  I listen to audio books while running, doing chores and driving.  All things that can't go on forever, or rather that you would like not to go on forever, so it is nice to think I will run until  this essay ends or I can stop putting laundry away when I find out if he buys the Pygmy skeleton.  I have to say I prefer the essays that seem to have come from his own life rather than the ones where he imagines being someone else.  I think the ring of truth in them makes them more compelling for me.

How would you imagine the burglar who stole your computer and passport to be living?  What kind of house would you like to live in in England?  Would you spend your days picking up someone else's trash because it bothered you and not because it was community service?  What would you do to track down your sisters mugger?  All questions you can come away from this book with.

Product Details

• ISBN-13: 9780316154697
• Publisher: Little, Brown & Company
• Publication date: 4/23/2013
• Pages: 275

Meet the Author

More by this Author

• Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules
• Me Talk Pretty One Day
• Naked
• When You Are Engulfed in Flames

David Sedaris is the author of the books Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk, When You Are Engulfed in Flames, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, Me Talk Pretty One Day, Holidays on Ice, Naked, and Barrel Fever. He is a regular contributor to The New Yorker and Public Radio International's This American Life. He lives in England.

Saturday Snapshot- Fire Safety!

A local fire station had an open house over the weekend.  They landed a helicopter and then let children sit in it and see it.

There was a nice line waiting to get a turn to pretend to be the pilot.

Not everyone wanted to be the pilot though.

Right after these pictures the battery in my camera ran out, but they also had the chance to use one of the small hoses.

Eight years ago we did the same activity, I have to dig around for that picture because it was so cute!

The firefighter joked with them that if they did too good a job they might be earning themselves more chores come spring.

We lucked out with a  beautiful day for this event.  They also had food, safety information, raffles, a bake sale and a demonstration of the jaws of life and taking a car apart along with all the emergency vehicles, equipment and uniforms.