The Farm and Woodstock

We recently took a day trip to Stone Barns Farm in NY an hour outside of the city. Friends of ours are cooks there, so we were able to get an insider tour while the place was closed on Monday. It was a lovely day seeing the animal and vegetable/fruit farm. Then our friends prepared us an amazing lunch and we ate on the terrace of the fancy restaurant (that was closed). The view was spectacular. (Pictured are the kids' letter t-shirts made by my friend. You can't see them all, but each shirt starts with the first letter of the name of the kid wearing it. In case we get confused. They are super cute walking around in matching outfits!)

All of the kids loved the tomato house. They all ate dozens of tomatoes off the vine. Yummy!

Tihun worked really hard to catch a chicken. I finally grabbed one so that they could pet it. She was so upset when we left the chicken coops. We finally figured out that she thought we were catching it to cook and eat it. Oops. Communication breakdown.

The Berkshire pigs were enormous and stinky. The restaurant slaughters and eats 3 pigs/week.

Again, we are so thankful for friends! Some friends of ours have a house in Woodstock, NY, and they let us stay there for 3 nights this week. It was rainy and chilly, but still great to get out of the city for a longer amount of time. Lots of mud playing!

We ate outside when we could--even when it drizzled on us. The place was so beautiful!

Fun Stuff

Front row seats at orchestra in the park

Quadracyling on Governor's Island

Overlooking Brooklyn Bridge from Gov Island

Sculpture climbing on Gov Island

A & A camping trip with Dad and friends

Hiking and wild blueberry picking with friends

Little Solomon skipped many naps to have all of this fun! (Mommy is very annoyed with blogger right now. I can't get pictures to do what I want. I have many more to post, but I'm tired of waiting/failed attempts. Maybe more later...)

Oochee

What is it about being outside? Is there some magic in the air? I have spent a lot of effort trying to keep our family at home--bonding, resting, renewing...this is what you are "supposed" to do when you adopt children. Create a safe and structured environment. Make sure that they know that you are their forever parents (and forever siblings). Reassure them that this is it--no more huge changes or moves. This worked for about a week or so in our home. Now, staying indoors usually results in grumpy, fighty frustration. I'm amazed at how walking outside can change everything. Constant arguing and whining can just melt away when you cross the threshold. Enemies (a.k.a. siblings) become best friends. Stressed parents become patient and playful. It really is magic.

This has been true of the Galt family thus far, and Tihun and Solomon are following suit. Solomon grabs his shoes constantly begging to go outside. He points at the window and makes his little "I want it" grunt. Tihun begins at 7 o'clock in the morning asking when we can go "chow" (goodbye) or "oochee" (outside). Our days are 100% better if we make it outside. The problem is that I don't have a lot of options in this stage of life. Four kids are difficult to manage in most environments, it's so hot that we can hardly breathe, Solomon takes 2 naps...but I've found a few things that work for us. Splash pools and sprinklers are our friends.

So far my favorite outside adventure with the kids (with other adults) has been the beach. We have gone twice (day trips) with the kids and were surprised at how well it went. Adaline and Arthur LOVE the waves. Tihun enjoys the sand and was impressed by the "telik woo ha" (big water). Solomon dives into either water or sand--literally DIVES.

I'm so happy that our whole family loves to be outside. Why fester inside when you can blister outside?



*That is Arthur's head at the top of the wave in the last picture. The waves were intense and they didn't mind being knocked around a bit.