Jon & Kate Plus 8 - Aaden and Hannah

Aaden and Hannah
Hannah has a horseback riding lesson; Jon takes Aaden to a dairy farm.

~*~

The day's plan is to take Hannah on her special day to horseback riding. So everyone's trying hard to get ready and out the door. Jon gets the other kids ready for Aunt Jodi's house. In a really adorable moment, Hannah kissed everyone goodbye.

Hannah's known as Kate's favorite (blah) and the more mature kid. She enjoys helping out Kate and often tells her parents that she'll "take care of the kids" while they're away.

Before they leave, Kate and Hannah get to hang out together for a few minutes and Hannah seems happy to have some alone time with her mom. Hannah loves horses and has large stuffed one named Puddin. Puddin is very loved and gets his mane brushed all the time. So the horse farm seems appropriate for Hannah.

Once at the Equine Center, Hannah gets to meet Moon, the horse she'll be riding on. She got really nervous and didn't seem to want to touch him or ride him. The owner put a helmet on her and she started to cry a bit. The owner lady was really good with her and tried to have Hannah brush the horse and get used to being around it so that she'd be more comfortable.

Kate rationalized that this was her *shy* behavior, but it seemed more like she was being stubborn and would rather hang out with her parents than be at this horse farm. Jon did eventually get Hannah to do some stuff with the horse. The owner did try to make her laugh by putting the cat on the horse first. Which was funny.

So Hannah steadfastly denied wanting to get on the horse. Jon did put her on the horse and she cried and whined. Kate things it's just that she's overwhelmed. I do feel kind of bad for her, but perhaps Kate shouldn't have chosen this activity for her. I mean Hannah just outright refused to do anything.

Before they left the horse farm, Jon hopped onto Moon and went for a ride. It was funny to see, especially because Moon was a smaller horse and Jon didn't quite fit into the saddle. Hannah laughed a little and seemed extremely content to be held by Kate.

At the end of the day, Hannah said that her favorite part of the day was walking away and holding both parents hands. I think that's so sad. The poor kid just wants to hang out with her parents.

The kids at Aunt Jodi's are making bug candy. Each of them got a gummy wedge and put some m&ms on them. It was so creative and so cute. Joel was looking forward to chowing down on his candy and went to town as soon as Aunt Jodi looked away. So funny. Unfortunately, the kids were getting a little stir crazy but a movie calmed them down. Ahh...movies. The great quieter.

It's now time for Aaden's day! He's going to a dairy farm with Jon (because Kate doesn't go on the boys' days). They start out at the farm getting to see all the cows geting milked. It seems kind of cool - there's kind of an assembly line for getting milked. They've got it down to a science there.

Kate was home with the rest of the kids. She had them all in the basement and had all the kids starting to clean up the mess down there. The kids didn't seem to happy to be cleaning up and I think spent more time telling her that they didn't make the mess than cleaning. But then Kate ended up getting mad and threw a few toys. And then she had the nerve to tell them that one day they'll all be cleaning and she's going to sit and watch them. Um...how is that any different than what she does now? She parks herself in a white lawn chair and watches them do stuff. Okay, whatever.

Aaden didn't really talk to much. He was too busy looking at everything and taking it all in. Jon and Aaden headed back into their car for a tour of the barn. It was cool because there's a radio signal so they can listen to the farmer tell them what's up while in their car. Aaden had some troubles seeing out the window, so Jon and Aaden got out of the car. They tried to pet one of the baby cows, but they seemed kind of shy and didn't want to be touched.

So instead, they headed into the ice cream store and saw a painting of a cow eating ice cream. And Aaden freaked out and got super excited. Too funny. Then Jon and Aaden got to eat a cookie and an apple dumpling. Yum!

And this is how Aaden describes his day: I saw big cows and yittle cows. Too cute.

SassySarah's Review: The kids were cute but perhaps these weren't the best activities for them. Neither one seemed to jazzed about it. No thumbs up or down.