Labor Day!

 

This is how we spent our Labor Day - with our little girls on the prairie!

  

A few days earlier, we had picked our lesson topic out of our FHE box (did I ever tell you about that? Hm.. have to do that soon!) and it was "The Word Of Wisdom". If you are not of our faith, you can read a little more about the Word Of Wisdom HERE. It is essentially a law revealed of God on healthy living for both our physcial and spiritual benefit. Since we were going to be teaching them more about the Lord's plan of healthy eating and living, we took a drive out to a small town near our city where there was a wonderful garden, filled with fresh veggies and fruits to pick. We had so much fun wandering around. Even our local school takes the kids on 'field' (ha) trips there each year.

 

We could immediately smell the fresh dill, and our eyes were blown away by not only the veggies we were familiar with, but many we weren't - like the green cauliflower (above) which we had NEVER seen before. We loved the eggplants as well - something we had never tasted!  So what did we do? We bought some cobs of corn and, yes, an eggplant to take home and try.

  

Before I go on, I just have to share the recipe I used to cook the eggplant - HUGE hit over here and a yummy alternative to a meat dish! Here it is:

BAKED EGGPLANT

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil 1/3 large eggplant 1 egg 1 tablespoon water

1 cup dry bread crumbs 1 tomato, chopped 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese 1/4 cup Italian-style salad dressing

Directions:

1.	Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a baking sheet or pizza pan with olive oil.
2.	Slice the eggplant into 8 round slices, each 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Trim the skin, maintaining the round shape of the slices. In a small bowl, whip together the egg and water. Place the breadcrumbs in a separate small bowl.
3.	Dip the eggplant slices one at a time into the egg and water mixture, then into the breadcrumbs. One by one, place the coated slices in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet or pizza pan. Top the slices with equal amounts of tomato, Parmesan cheese and Italian-style salad dressing.
4.	Bake in the preheated oven approximately 15 minutes. Change oven setting to broil, and continue cooking 3 to 5 minutes. Check the slices frequently while broiling to avoid burning.

This recipe was so easy, it was right up my alley. It came from Allrecipes.com.

After our visit to the garden, we headed into the small town close by for a picnic lunch. Too bad the girls were all too busy playing at the park to eat!  

  

Just after we finished eating, we set out another blanket in a prime spot for the parade! Each year they hold a Ducky Derby and celebration - we were so excited to be there for it!

  

Okay, I thought this was hilarious - one of the "floats" was from the local petting zoo. The two goats they had decided they had had enough of the walking and parked themselves comfortably in the middle of the road. These girls had to scoop them up and run before they got run over by the next vehicle in the parade. I hope they didn't have to carry those goats too far!

  

Our girls loved all of the floats, but they really loved the horses! The older girls would jump and wave, screaming "We LOVE your horse! We LOVE your horse!" and JJ would jump along with them screaming "And it's REAL!!!"

  

  Okay, the bagpipe guys. I remember going to parades in BC as a child and being freaked out by these guys - okay it was more the guys who wore those gigantic black fur hats, but still. Was it the haunting bagpipe music, or the fact that it's men wearing skirts? Either way, scary. (Yes, I know kilts are NOT skirts... please don't email)

These guys clearly had the best ride in the parade. Though you might get sick after an hour of going up and down, and up and down.

 

More bands, more fun. At least these guys are wearing pants.

  

These clowns were so adorable - they were poking each other saying "Hey, there's a photographer - let's pose!" LOL! Nope, just a mom taking pics for her scrapbook! Not on duty today!

 

Hey, is that firefighter going to spray us with that ginormous hose?

 

Uh, yes. Yes he is.

  

Thankfully he was the LAST float, so we didn't have to sit there drenched the entire time. And I'm talkin' DRENCHED! On the bright side, it was a sunny, warm Labor Day so we were dry in no time! And good thing, because we were soon off to a local pumpkin patch and corn maze!

  

The pumpkins weren't ready to pick, yet, but that's not why we were there. By the way, why is TJ wearing BOOTS with SHORTS? Weird.

We started off on a thrilling cow train ride. BB is obviously enjoying it.

 

After the ride we went over to the kiddie corral. To my dismay, I realize I had to stay there with them. Some corral! And I had a hot date planned! Well, what can you do? B spent most of her time playing in the corn box. It was a sand box filled with dried corn. Neat!

  

TJ spent most of her time visiting the petting zoo. This was Tina (think - Napoleon Dynamite) - not too friendly, unless you had food. User.

  

TJ's favorite was Little Nicky - a cute and friendly miniature pony. It was a beautiful thing.

  

JJ loved the horsey tire swings. And who can blame her? Good times, good times.

  

I enjoyed the scenery, though I didn't really take any pictures of the landscape. This place is tucked away in a gorgeous valley. I would LOVE to come here when all the leaves are changing.

  

We finally made our way to the corn maze, and set about trying to make our way through it. The corn was HIGH and the day was HOT. It's a good thing I'm not claustrophobic.

 

... Oh.... wait... I am! Everyone had a good time, though :)

Our day didn't end there, though the photos do :) We headed back into the city, had a delicious meal, reviewed our lesson on the Word Of Wisdom, played a rousing game of pictionary (also chosen as the activity from our FHE box), and even had some time for a game of Monopoly, which BB won! Pretty good for a 5 year old, and WHO taught her to buy tonnes of houses for every property? Maybe she'll be a real estate tycoon someday. It was a wonderful Labor day. I loved every minute of it. Can't wait for next year!