Heskin Family: SummerFest

Peach season is in full-swing here. I think fresh peaches are my favorite fruit. A local orchard held their SummerFest this past weekend, so we swung by on Saturday for some good farm fun. Straw maze, John Deere tricycle races, hay rides, face painting, corn boxes, local sarsparilla...what more do you need?

The straw maze was first, doing laps with James. We were there early enough that it wasn't too hot yet, so she ran and ran. Then we saw face painting.

Racing Dad in the straw maze

I had hyped up face painting the previous night (possibly a mistake?), scheming with Audrey how we'd all get monkeys on our faces. Well, the artists available didn't really do monkeys. I think they had a limited repertoire. Luckily they could do a rainbow, which, of course, is a close second to a monkey. She wanted her face painted, but once it was our turn, she clearly wasn't so sure. She sat stone-still, but I could tell it was all she could do to sit and not cry. My daughter isn't fond of people she doesn't know either a)telling her what to do, or b) touching her. So three cheers (Hip hip, hooray!) for her sitting still and letting this young lady PAINT on her. Ahh,...my child is in fact growing up.

Wanting a rainbow, but not sure about the process.

Rainbow success!

James, thankfully, was taking pictures. I am grateful for his skills and willingness to snap shots of us in our adventures, and he gets some great pictures. I don't thank you enough, James. Thank you. :)

We love honeybees.

Back to the straw maze, this time with me. Yay. And this time she wanted to walk ON the straw bales, not just around. Commence 15 minutes of me lifting her up and down off of straw bales. Oh, and by now it was hot and sticky. But we were all still in good spirits, even if shiny.

Giant of the straw!

These next three pics might be my favorite series. We discovered a "Trike 500" gig. It was empty, so we gave it a shot. Audrey somehow had a child's 6th sense of how to pick out the best toy/book/car/snack/John Deer trike, and snagged the most fully-functional one. James climbed on one that turned out to have (I think) not one, not two, but three flat tires. Try riding on three flat tires on a trike made for 4-year olds. Pretty funny.

"Dad, I"m gonna catch you!"

"Dad, I passed you!"

"Dad, hurry up!!"

Later, it was my turn. It was hard. Very hard. I might look like I'm having fun. I might make it look
like a walk in the park. I might look like I could ride that thing all day long. But in reality, the seat slanted down backwards. This meant I had to use my arms/shoulders to constantly pull myself up toward the handle bars. This meant steering was nearly impossible. I say nearly because I could turn...to the right. But if I did, my rear-end slid to the left off the tilted seat. My knees were just at handle bar level, necessitating the unique wide-legged position you see below. The angle of my legs was not good for forward propulsion. Oh, the joys of parenthood.

Me, trying to go fast.

But Audrey? She had no problem at all.

Audrey rode around.....and around....and around....

After our laps on trikes, we were all hot and thirsty. Inside we went to purchase a drink, when we found sunflowers. Happy, bright, beautiful. Oh, and sarsparilla. Yum.

Happiness on a stem

Local sarsparilla on a hot day.

Time for a hay ride. Basically a big blue tractor pulling a wagon with straw bales for benches. We saw pumpkin vines, peach orchards, apple orchards, corn fields, honey bee hives, silos, and lots of sun and sweat.