Home again, home again

L. (on left) and G. (notice the new farm outfits I made for visiting Iowa)

We have returned from a quick weekend trip to Iowa.  My parents own a farm there and occasionally go out to see it.  My brother and his family decided to meet them, so we joined the party as well.  We had a nice time, despite some rain, and the cousins had a great time catching-up.  We saw the Living History Farms and the zoo in Des Moines.  The highlight for many of the children was feeding the koi in the children's section of the zoo.  There were so many koi that they were swimming on top of each other to get to the food that was being offered.  It was such a feeding frenzy that the children discovered you didn't even need food for them.  Just putting your fist into the water would cause many fish to start investigating what was there. 


All the cousins waiting for the tractor to take us to the historical farms.


In the school room




The koi pond


M. and TM at the zoo


K. during lunch

Today we drove home by way of Wisconsin to drop A. and P. off at church camp.  It wasn't exactly a direct route, but it was a pretty drive.  Either J. or I will drive back up on Saturday to retrieve them.  Tomorrow begins the week of birthdays at our house, which consequently means a week of baking as well.  So far, I've had peach pie, strawberry pie, and blueberry pie requested (the peaches and blueberries are frozen from last year), and I'll make a carrot cake for the babies' first birthday.

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