Kookiest Pit-Stop // Bravo Farms

 On our way back home Sunday afternoon, we made THE most unusual pit-stop: Bravo Farms

This place has the oddest collection of antiques, hand-built kid houses, a shooting gallery {a Swenson favorite}, chicken coop, goats, mini-golf course, and a hand-built seven story tree house. There was also a BBQ jot, creamery, fruit stand, gift shop, and wine and cheese tasting on site. Seriously, this place was a smorgasbord of everything under the sun, and then some. 

 Did I mention it was kooky?!

What we thought was going to be a 20 minute stop, turned out to be well over an hour and a half. We decided to have lunch there too. The wood burning grill tri-tip sandwich was delish. And we grabbed some of our new favorite flavored milk at their creamery! So bummed that Rosa Brothers isn't carried up here! The kiddos passed out before we even pulled back onto the freeway and it was a delightful drive home the rest of the way. 

Such a good good weekend with our littles. My heart was filled and my bucket-list shortened. ;)

4:35 AM

That's the time we all woke up to head to the Rosa Brothers Dairy Farm. 

Because I was getting to cross off one of my bucket list items!!! Hand-milking a cow! :)

We met Mr. Rolland Rosa at the milking barn at 5am. Several milkers were leaving because they had done most of the milking by then. Did you get that? Most of the milking by then.

They have to milk their 1,000 cow herd every single day, twice a day. That means each cow is milked via machine for 8 minutes. The two Rosa brothers are third generation farmers and still see over each milking as well as the other process to care for the cows.

Mr. Rolland gave me a quick lesson in hand-milking.

Then he let me go to town for as long as I wanted. :)

Hand-milking was so much harder than I had expected!! Mr. Rolland's dad and siblings had to milk 11 cows each by hand twice a day when they were growing up. I can not even imagine. Especially based on the five minutes I actually milked. After awhile my hand cramped so then he let me put on the pump machine to see how it works. Quite similar to a human pump, but more vacuum power and has two extra covers.

 I liked having some background knowledge already about how this whole thing works. ;) There are so many similarities between both Mamas. And much like what I've experienced from nursing, feeding time provides relief. You could tell some of these cows were antsy to get things going! I also noticed that after being milked, the cows got anti-bacterial dips {that dark orange-yellow-ish liquid on the floor you may have noticed in the above pictures} so nothing could re-enter at the site. No mastitis for these cows. ;)

 W got in on the milking too.

The whole experience was amazing. Our entire gang had a blast and learned so much. You could tell the farm take great pride in caring for their herd {we learned later on the farm tour just how well they do that}. It truly is an amazing operation to gather the 8,000 gallons of milk these cows produce.

Holiday Boutique

Over this past weekend, I participated in my very first craft selling boutique. It was also the weekend of an amazing block birthday party that included a whole roasted pig, jump house, and beer on tap. Annnnnd the stomach flu for the boys. Seriously, never a dull moment.

I had several reinforcements throughout the weekend to help: my mom, dad, and neighbor {who sold some cards too}. W stopped by throughout the weekend to bring me things I had forgotten at home, feed me, or take/bring back V. I'm so glad it happened so close to home.

My table neighbors were fabulous and sweet. Of course, Juju was the highlight for everyone. If I came without her, everyone would ask where she was. I was never short of arms to hold her while I ran to the bathroom, ate lunch, or needed to sit. It really was a blessing to have so many sweet and gracious women around. 

Another highlight was meeting and exceeding my costs for the experience. Meeting cost was the goal I set out for myself since I had no clue what to expect. I was so excited to get two custom orders while there too. One for a bridal shower that was happening Sunday afternoon. I made it over the night and she picked it up on Sunday morning. 

On the flip side, I seemed to have brought the majority of my traffic. Most of those that purchased from me, I already knew. So I'm not sure if I really needed the boutique other than to have a place to set up shop. I also had plenty of inquiries from strangers on whether I had an online shop. Still have my work cut out for me.  I had a blast, loved trying it out, but with a full weekend away from my family, I'm not sure if I'll do it again. Perhaps, I'll do a virtual store-front first?! 

A GIANT thank you for everyone who encouraged from both near and far. And to my family who supported me through time and energy! This was certainly NOT a one-woman show. ;)

Pre-K // Homeschool Style

We "started" preK this week. I use that term loosely only because we've only done a little of our reading program. PreK is really nice like that. So is homeschooling. 

We'll be working our way through this curriculum. And we're in our second day of "rowing" the book The Story About Ping. Very similar to unit studies. I made a make-shift homeschool corner...because there really isn't a corner left in our small space. There's a world map that we got in a random mailer, the ping duck to place in China {where the story takes place}, and a few 'artifacts' that I scrounged up. Hoping my planning will get better in time?! ;) And our dining area chalkboard will work perfectly for scripture memorization and reading highlights. 

So far, E has worked on numbers, the letter D, and sewing and tracing for fine motor skills--in addition to reading our book. We're going on our first "field trip" this afternoon to...to observe and feed the ducks with friends who are also sticking to our program/schedule.

He's randomly picked up on recognizing numbers 1-5 and 8 {which may have something to do with helping me press numbers around town.} Glad to know I wouldn't have to formally cover those.

Normally, the stories are covered in a week, but we're starting out with two. Next week, we'll be covering science {buoyancy, animal kingdom} and social studies {China geography and culture} and hopefully art.

This will certainly be a marathon journey and lots of "figuring out as we go", but I'm so excited to be able to do with my kids!

Holiday Boutique // I'm A Seller!

I've been working on some wood + paper goods to sell locally!! The first boutique is in October, so if you're local, please stop by!!! 

Our Little Charmer is TWO!!

Happy Birthday, sweet sweet boy!!

SO excited to celebrate YOU today!

Brothers

Friday afternoon I shuffled everyone into the van and headed out to a local spot. They were so generous. It was pretty hot. Vesper napped on my back and I snapped away while the boys played. Once everyone was too red in the face, we headed home where they dressed down to undies and returned to jumping on the sofa... 

Happy Three Day Weekend, Friends!