The Farm

“We try to foster a wonder and love of nature by allowing our kids to be out on the farm throughout the seasons. We climb the trees, run barefoot through the corn, graze in the garden, feed the animals, collect the eggs, and get stuck in the mud. It’s all part of finding our place in the world.”



I’ve been spending time at “The Farm” lately. Clover has started attending a creative play preschool on a small family farm twice a week. I pulled the above quote from their information packet. I liked the way it summed things up :)



Clover has always been a mama’s girl, very attached, so we’ve been taking the transition slow with me spending the full four hours there with her and progressively fading off into the background more and more.

She's become really comfortable with the two wonderful women who run the place, and has even for the most part overcome her initial terror of Cosmo the "noisy pig," one of several farm animals who roam free, including "Skippy" the bunny and "Oh Suzanna", the chicken who endearingly thinks she's a person.



It’s such a fun and creative place and Clover is loving it.

For something to do while "fading into the background", I wandered around taking pictures the day after our big rainstorm. I finally tried messing around with Rollip on the photos, which I'd been wanting to try ever since first hearing about it through Caroline. My favorite effects turned out to be the first and last. I also really like that it has the option of leaving the pics full-size.



I thought the farm atmosphere along with the abundance of charming vintage books, toys, and play equipment (flea market, garage sale, and thrift finds abound!) lent itself well to the old-timey Polaroid effects.

As I was taking photos it began to rain and the girls headed inside and straight for the dress-up clothes… that's my girl! They were so adorable bouncing around on a mattress in their “princess dresses” and tattered fairy wings.

I couldn’t help but take a little video:

Unfortunately, this camera doesn’t capture sound (or the settings are off?) but if you can imagine “Hey Hey, We’re the Monkey’s…” starting off in the background at the point where Clover starts off the jumping, it’s only that much cuter : )

The woman who started the pre-school, lives on the farm with her family and also happens to be close friends with one of Lucas' sisters. So, six years ago when we were planning our low key, low budget wedding and they were kind and generous enough to offer us the use of their farm as our location, free of charge, of course we jumped at the opportunity! It ended up being a perfect location and a perfect day.

Also, the fact that our child will now be swinging up in the field on the rope swing right under the big oak tree where mama and papa got married is pretty cool too.

Oh, and good news! I've successfully been able to leave for a couple of hours on the last two visits with no issues whatsoever and having four consecutive hours to myself twice a week is looking like it will soon be a reality and a much welcomed one at that!

What will I do with all this free time? Well, go thrifting of course! Haha.. just kiddin' Lucas! I will totally be at home keeping everything clean and organized and fulfilling all of my housewifely duties... totally ;)