We are very happy to introduce little Lynnae Teresa to our family! She was born yesterday, Oct. 15 at 8:27am. She is 8 pounds 1 ounce, 20 inches long, has a little dark hair, 10 long fingers, 10 cute toes, and is totally perfect! She is named after her mom, Sara Lynne, and Jon's Grandma Theresea Meengs. We can't wait to bring her home on Sunday. Dylan and Hannah are excited! Here are some pictures to enjoy! 
During the first week of September, Grandma Westra brought Dylan and Hannah a monarch caterpillar she found in a field of milkweed. Since we've read "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" over and over again, they seemed to know the life cycle of a butterfly. However, it is a whole other thing to SEE it! The kids loved watching Clara munch away on her leaves. I must say that I enjoyed it too! :) It was amazing to see how quickly she could eat one leaf.
Two weeks later, Clara stopped eating and seemed ready to turn into her chrysalis. We were on pins and needles watching her every move, which we couldn't predict. During the first 2 weeks, she stayed on her milkweed plant the whole time. Now she was crawling all over her box and onto the table. Finally one evening, she started to hang upside down! We were so excited to see her in the morning!
Unfortunately, Clara did not turn into a chrysalis. Dylan thought if we put her outside by the flowers she would start moving again, so we did... Fortunately, Grandma Westra had another caterpillar named Fred who did turn into a chrysalis. We lived vicariously through Fred. Last Saturday, she said Fred's chrysalis was starting to turn color. Dylan was pretty excited about this, as he knew eventually he could see the colors of the wings through the chrysalis. We went over to see and sure enough, the once green chrysalis was becoming translucent. Late Saturday afternoon, Grandma called to tell us Fred was now a butterfly! How exciting! Here are some pictures from Tuesday, right before we let Fred (aka Clara) fly away to Mexico. 
Since they couldn't pick the apples on their field trip, we headed to DK Orchards on Monday to pick some for eating and applesauce. Both kids were looking forward to it, especially Hannah since she's heard Dylan talk about it over and over. Both of them did great and we picked 4 1/2 bushels in record time! :)
Getting ready for our wagon ride
We'll see when the applesauce gets made, but the applesauce and apples with caramel dip are awesome!
Oh, and to answer a few questions... the reasons for the multiple posts... I LOVE FALL and all the fun it brings, and I'm sure I won't get around to posting these fun things once little Meengs arrives. Hope you're enjoying!
After walking down the nature trail and seeing the bobcat, owls, and hawks, we walked over to the field to make some rope, pet the chickens, dip some candles, and play with the old-fashioned toys. Hannah loved the animals best-- the chickens and horses on the wagon ride. Dylan enjoyed the toys and making rope.
Next on the loop was the cider mill. Dylan loves apple cider and there is a Curious George episode where George makes cider that Dylan has been curious :) about, so we spend quite a bit of time here! It was pretty cool to watch the old cider mill work and then get to taste our cider afterward.
A huge pile of straw was waiting for us next. We grabbed some clothes while Hannah got to pet a dog, then started stuffing our scarecrow! It was a little crazy for a bit, but Grandma finally got the scarecrow all finished. Now he's in our garden attempting to scare all the crows in our backyard! :)
The last stop was the log cabin where we tasted some cookies, wondered where the 10 kids who lived here slept, tried out the butter churn, and washed some clothes. I am glad for the conveniences we have now, but it would have been fun to live in that cabin in the woods! Maybe the kids would have helped out a little more! :)
After watching a short movie about the dairy, we rode the tractor out to the processing plant and cow barns. 
To enter the processing plant, we needed to wear hair nets. Pretty cute! Hannah DID NOT want to wear hers, so we got a few laughs out of it. Hopefully you'll laugh at the video too!
I don't have too many pictures, as we used Mom's camera, but we had a great time watching the cows too. Hannah and Dylan enjoyed feeding hay to the calves and getting right in their faces. Dylan was really interested in the milking machine. The cows that were being milked were enormous! One of the better parts was the free chocolate milk at the end of the tour and the incredibly delicious ice cream! We had a fantastic time and Hannah has been talking about the dairy farm almost daily still. We'll have to head back next summer, this time with Daddy-O! On the way back towards the highway, we stopped at a Farm Market to pick up some fresh pears. Well, the pears didn't look too great, but what a zoo this place was, literally! Behind the market were several barns with goats, sheep, cows, horses, peacocks, camels, wallabies, bunnies, donkeys, and even a zebra! The kids sweet-talked grandma into letting them ride the Boo Berry Express too. What a crazy find! 
The kids had a great day! Thanks for coming with us Grandma!
