At the end of June, Aubree had an amazing adventure. Our incredible friends, the Franks, live just a couple hours away in the middle of farm country. Almost a year ago, the idea of "farm school and city school" was born. The basic premise was simple: Aubree would spend a few days with the Franks doing "farm stuff," and Jaylen (one of the Frank's daughters who is just a little younger than Aubree) would spend a couple days with us doing "city stuff." Over the course of the following months, the idea grew and expanded and excitement mounted, until it became a reality.
In anticipation of the event, Aubree must have asked to know the details of the plans for every day fifty times. She counted down the days. She told her friends and teachers about it. She packed her bags a week ahead of time.
I knew she would have an unimaginable amount of fun with the Franks, but she's also never, ever spent the night away from us, so jumping to 3 nights and 3 days away, all at once, had me just a smidge concerned. But, when I brought up the possibility that it might be a little hard, and she might miss us a little bit, and that would be okay... Aubree balked. "Mom!" she exclaimed, "do you know how many sisters I'll have there?!" (The Franks have 3 girls).
So, on the appointed day, the Franks drove over the mountains and spent a couple hours visiting with us before loading up their van for the drive home, this time with Aubree in tow. And just as I thought, it was harder for me to see Aubree leave than it was for her to go. It didn't take them long to have their first adventure - on the drive home they stopped to hike Snoqualmie Falls. Aubree still talks about how beautiful it was and how neat it was to see the waterfall spray.
Over the next few days Aubree had more excitement and adventures than I would have thought it possible to pack into such a short time. She picked her own potatoes, raspberries, and strawberries and helped make strawberry jam.
She rode horses and scooters and rode on the Gator through miles of orchards and fields.
She swam in the pool, jumped on the trampoline, and ran in the sprinklers.
She made mud pies.
She played with her American Girl doll with her "sisters" for hours.
She visited the dairy as a VIP, witnessed a calf be born, and got to see all the newborn calves.
One of the days she was at Farm School happened to be Jaylen's 6th birthday, so on top of everything else, she got to go to Jaylen's birthday party. And this wasn't any ordinary party - Jaylen had a MUD party. They made a gigantic mud puddle for adults and kids alike. From what I hear, Aubree was initially reluctant to get into the mud, but soon was rolling around with the rest of the crazies and was proud to tell me she dug her own "mud pool." When they were done in the mud, they took a bath in the retention pond and continued with the festivities.
She even came home with a beloved souvenir - a Royal City t-shirt to be used as a nightgown.
Every night she fell asleep immediately - completely exhausted and utterly content. She came home thoroughly convinced that we needed to move to the country. Her main reason? - "Mom! In the country, you don't even need to ask to go outside - you just go!"
On Sunday, we met the Franks for a picnic halfway between our homes. It was great to see Aubree again; we really missed her! We enjoyed the perfect weather and let our kids play happily for a few hours until it was time to head home. This time, the Franks had to say good-bye to Jaylen, and "city school" officially began.
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| If these two ever get married, I'm going to blow up this picture for their reception (Hey - I can dream!) |
I thought for sure the girls would fall asleep quickly that night, but long after I put them to bed we heard giggles and whispers coming from their bedroom. Words like "ears pierced" floated out, but it wasn't until the next morning that we discovered that they'd conspired to pierce the ears of Aubree's American Girl doll (so she would match Jaylen's doll). I would have been more upset, except they somehow managed to do a really good job.
City School couldn't even begin to compete with the excitement of Farm School, but we did manage to have a lot of fun. Monday morning we were up early and headed north for a pilgrimage to the American Girl store. I'd never visited the store before, so I was unsure of what to expect, but the girls had talked of little else for weeks. The store is full of dolls and doll clothes and doll accessories and even a doll hair salon, and all of it is exorbitantly priced. The kids were in awe. They each bought their dolls earrings and immediately began asking when they could return.
To appease the boys, (Bryce had asked, "where's the American Boy store?") we stopped by the Lego store to look around and then played for a little while on the play structures at the Mall.
All too soon, it was time to head on to the next adventure - the Woodland Park Zoo. My kids have been to zoos a ton of times (city kids!), but Jaylen's only been once since she was old enough to remember. She got a new camera for her birthday and was careful to document all of her favorite animals and exhibits.
The kids especially seemed to enjoy climbing on and posing with animal statues (who needs real animals when there are statues?!).
The next day our big plans were thwarted (we wanted to go to the Children's museum, but it turns out all the local ones are closed on Tuesdays), so we opted for more low-key adventures. We visited IKEA and had lunch and toured other local attractions. Then we spent time at the park playing.
Wednesday morning was the 4th of July. We loaded up our van for a final adventure and headed back to the Frank's home for their annual 4th of July Extravaganza. We arrived just after lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon at their pond - playing in the water, eating, chatting with friends, and enjoying the water toys. Aubree discovered she has a love for kayaking. Mark took her out on the pond in the kayak and let her paddle. She quickly figured out that Mark was "weighing her down," so she kicked him out, and spent hours kayaking around the pond solo.
Towards evening time, people began showing up in droves for a big BBQ picnic and, at dark, a ridiculously amazing fireworks show. Despite being a small town, private "show," it totally rivaled anything you might see at a big city fireworks spectacular. And, since we were all sitting on the banks of the pond and the fireworks were being set off just just about 100 yards away on the other side of the pond, the fireworks were exploding literally over our heads. It was a little frightening, but AWEsome. I thought the kids might be a little nervous, but they loved it. Even Thane stayed awake until 11 pm because he refused to miss any of the excitement.
We stayed the night with the Franks and had one more morning to play before we had to head back to real life. Farm school and City School were a hit and we're planning to make it an annual event (though we'll be stepping up our City School events next year!). And perhaps, when Bryce and Maggie are 6, they'll get to be part of the swap too.
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