New Park in OP

For the past several month we have driven by this park near Leawood. It was under construction until last month and we finally had a chance to explore it. There's a splash pad attached to it, but it's closed due to the electrical lines underground. Hopefully that will be corrected by next summer. There's plenty of stuff to keep the kids busy for hours. There's even a nature section with an old fashion water pump. I also appreciate the mini picnic tables for the kids. There's nothing worse than a child falling off a concrete picnic table onto a concrete floor. There are parts that remind me of the Waterfront Park in San Diego.

If you are local it's definitely worth checking out. 

Shatto Dairy Farm

Most people around KC are familiar with Shatto Milk Company. They offer a variety of milk flavors that come in glass bottles AND you can even get home deliveries in some areas. What is cooler than having your own milk man?

The company has a country store on the Farm that is open most days. Last month they opened the Farm for family day and invited people to come out and experience a dairy Farm. While I would have loved to go with the whole crew I was ecstatic to learn that C's preschool was planning a trip there at the end of September. A private tour with 30 of your closets classmates instead of thousands of strangers - sign me up. 

Here is a description on Shatto from their website.

Shatto Milk Company is a small, family owned and operated, dairy farm located

just north of the Kansas City metropolitan area. The Shatto family has

been farming here for more than 100 years and began a dairy farm more

than 70 years ago. In June 2003 this family began processing their own milk on the farm.

The Shatto's decided to bottle their own milk for the purpose of providing their

customers with the freshest and best tasting dairy products possible.

 

The cows in action

Milking a Cow. It's harder than it looks. 

The white cow was only 2 days old. 

It was a fun day spent with my eldest. We learned about cows, how milk is made and how it ends up in our local grocery store. I think I might enjoy future field trips with my kids as much or even more than they do.

Fall Apple Picking

One of my favorite fall activities is apple picking. We started going apple picking as a family last summer and it brought back memories of my childhood.

We found an orchard close to our house and checked it out last weekend. While I wasn't super impressed we found a bag of apples and enjoyed our afternoon. Many of the apples were rotten or already on the ground, so it made finding good ones difficult. E picked up EVERY apple he could and threw them. I guess that's what we thought about our trip.

The apple doughnuts and frozen cider were delicious.

We used the apples to make apple butter this weekend. It's almost gone and was so yummy. We have since made another batch with the leftover apples and some additional ones. If you like Apple Butter, this one is definitely worth trying.