Elijah's 2nd Birthday

We celebrated Elijah's Birthday on Monday. We had a busy day filled with fun and excitement for our little man.

Our day began with going to our homeschool co-op. For those that are not familiar with homeschooling, a co-op is usually made up of homeschool families in an area that meet together and have classes taught by the parents. For instance in our co-op, I volunteered to teach a recorder music class. I teach the beginner level during the first hour class and intermediate during the 3rd hour. The second hour is a p.e. class where the kids have group games for about 45 minutes followed by a 15 minute break and snack time.

Elijah is in the 0-3 year old class. Jonathan is in the 4-6 year old class. Hannah is taking beginner recorder and embroidery. Ruth is taking science and sewing. And Joshua is taking Science and Legos.

This was our first week of co-op and I felt it went well. We meet once a week for 6 weeks.

After co-op ended we went to the store and picked Elijah out some birthday presents. I got him a stick horse from the dollar store and I let him choose the color hat he wanted. I also picked him out a toy gun, since he had been running around the house pretending to ride my broom and pretending to shoot with toy guns he took from his siblings. Now he has the full outfit.


After the store, we stopped by our friends' farm. They live real close to us and we let them know we were coming. The older kids got to bottle feed some of the baby goats. Elijah was still a bit nervous at that point. I had to take this picture of them in the goat pin. I joked that only half the kids in that pin were mine. :-)


We got to see a border collie herd goats. It was really neat to watch him from a distance obey the commands of his trainer, with just the sound of a whistle and the sight of a shephrd's rod. The kids asked lots of questions and learned a lot.

The dog won't mess with any sheep or goat that has a baby. We saw one he had left way out in the field and they took us in their gator to see whether the sheep had given birth recently. Sure enough she had a new baby lamb with her. Then we heard another lamb crying a little ways off and Joshua got to hold the lamb and reunite her with her mother.


Jonathan got to steer the Gator through the pasture. You know that was exciting for a 4 year old.


Then the kids each got to go for a ride on a horse. Hannah had been begging the whole time if they could ride.


Joshua went after Hannah. Then Jonathan rode with Joshua. Jonathan was a bit nervous as you can see by the picture.


After Ruth had a turn Elijah got to ride with her. I was amazed at how calm he was. Before this just the sight of a horse scared him. But after seeing the others ride he was saying, "My turn!" He looked so comfortable in the saddle he might would have fallen asleep if he had ridden much longer.


The kids got to sweep the horse area. They had so much fun that I told our neighbors that they should get themselves a couple of extra brooms and charge admission. :-)


Then came the tractor. Elijah climbed up there all by himself. He was so excited.


The others all got to go for a ride in the bucket. I think they couldn't have had more fun if it had been a Ferris wheel. I was afraid that Elijah would panic so I held him down below. Don't worry, they didn't go anywhere just up and back down. :-) In fact Hannah was in that bucket so good she almost didn't want to come out.


I had to take this picture because Jonathan is petting the dog that he had been terrified of when we first stepped out of the car. The kids also enjoyed playing fetch with her.


At the very end of our visit, I had the kids all get in the back of the gator for one last picture before we left. We had so much fun and learned so much.


Elijah fell asleep before we even left the driveway good. Jonathan was out as soon as he found the recliner. :-) Sure signs that they had a really good time on a farm.