Conversations with chickens and tractors

"making a very important point about bunnies and ducks!"

"This turkey talked back...loudly"

"one of the animals"

"My buddy, the chicken, loved my antics"

"This is one serious tire "

"I loved this tractor so much I sat on the ground, kicked my feet and screamed like a maniac when I had to let someone else take a turn...MINE!"

Today was touch-a-tractor day at prarie farms (a replica farm with tons of animals and tractors and such). Now we started off at the Tractors because we knew that Eli would love sitting on the tractors, honking their horns and steering the wheel...we just didnt anticipate how MUCH he would love this. He loved it so much that after he had to get off the first tractor and give another child a turn he threw a full blown toddler tantrum, even though we were headed to a different tractor. Things got better with each subsequent tractor sitting ( Eli thinks he is a midwest farm boy at heart) but we still made a break for the animal section of the farm pretty fast to avoid another war.

So we went from super tractor toddler to super " I am a nut and cant make up my mind which animal I love best and why wont the animals talk to me when I say hi and why is everyone staring at me as I run from enclosure to enclosure squealing, talking, gesticulating, and generally being a wild man" toddler (there is no punctuation in that phrase because that is honestly the only way to describe Eli this afternoon). Eli is the reason that every animal pen has a sign that reads "please dont yell at or touch the animals". The highlights of the animal section were a chicken that liked Eli's talking and antics and hung out with him by the fence, a turkey that wanted to eat all the kids, and the two minature ponies that took the petting zoo to an x-rated level with their attempts at procreation! What a day.

Honestly, today was our favorite family day since we moved here. We went to the farmers market and library this morning. This afternoon in addition to tractor days we met up with my friend Amy, her husband and son and daughter at an ice cream shop to beat the heat (their son matthew is 6 weeks older than Eli and their daughter Zadie is 4 weeks younger than Nate). It was an all around king family adventure.