Weekend with Clifford the Big Red Dog

This week has been an incredibly long week.  Jeremy started a new rotation that requires him to be there about 14 hours a day, add in an hour long commute each way plus some 24 hour call shifts and that equals almost zero time with the kids.  He has woken up Cora a couple of nights just so he could see her (I usually let Will stay up until Dad gets home, unless he's doing his 24 hour call shift).  So, on Friday when I went to pick Will up from school, we had a fun surprise.  He got picked to take home the beloved class Clifford the Big Red Dog.  When you get Clifford, you journal what you did that weekend with him.  I had figured on staying home and doing nothing since Jeremy is pretty much gone for the weekend, until Will came home with Clifford.  This was awesome, it made us think of some fun things to do just the three of us, plus the dog of course.

The kids got to see Dad for about an hour on Friday night, so they and Clifford dog piled Dad.

Today we went to one of our favorite places, Maple Grove.  

"Mom?  Is Maple Grove the one with the little bridge and all of the fun leaves to crunch?" 

"Yes, yes it is."

"Hey Mom!  It's the bridge, I totally remembered it!"

Clifford is apparently doing some pull ups...and Cora is not impressed.

But you can tell she idolizes her big brother.

Remember this feeling when swinging?  Me too, sometimes I still swing really high when my kids are occupied and the swingset is very secure.

Will bundled up Clifford because he got cold on our walk.  Then they cuddled while watching "A New Hope".

We made a fort tonight and Will made a cozy red bed for Clifford.  I'm not sure if Clifford enjoyed the time Will spent playing on his phone, but Will did "read" some books to him too.

I also made Will and Clifford play with Cora (and keep her from running into the road) in the front yard while I did some leaf clean up.  So while I mowed and blew leaves, Will and Cora and Clifford wrestled and knocked each other down for about a good 30 minutes.  It was awesome. 

Needless to say, even after pumpkin waffles covered in very sugary, yet delicious, syrup, they were exhausted.  

So I learned a great lesson this weekend from our big red friend, even though we miss Daddy, we can still have fun even though Daddy can't be with us all the time.

Pumpkin Farm

We decided that today was too beautiful of a day to let get away from us (it was in the 80's today), plus Jeremy got off of work early, so we headed over to Johansen Pumpkin Farm.  Will has always loved the baby chicks, so we went there first thing.

Can you tell he loves them?

Cora on the other hand, does not.  She wanted to see the animals from a distance and that was it.

Will made friends with this goat.  We forgot to bring some change for the corn to feed these guys, but this goat loved Will anyway and let him pet him for quite awhile.

"Mom, I'll be the horse, you can be the cow!"

Great.  I've always wanted to be a cow.

This was the face Cora made for most of the afternoon.  

Throwing hay around and at Will.  I don't know why I didn't get Will in the picture.  Maybe I was just enjoying the moment.

The nice thing about going on a weekday is that there are no lines, and Will got to go down this slide for quite awhile.

It took some time, but Cora ended up loving the bounce houses.

Going on a train ride.  At least Will was excited!

We went to go see the baby chicks one more time, and this time Cora actually touched one, without crying.  After that, we went and got some chocolate covered pretzels and donuts Jeremy and the kids and mums for me.  Great end to a fun filled day.  Love these kiddos and I was happy to get to have Jeremy with us.