Sweet Little Honey Bee

We had another farm related activity this evening. We eat a lot of honey, so naturally we want to explore keeping bees on our homestead, not to mention the benefits they will bring to the plants in the garden. We attended our local bee keeper's association meeting in hopes to learn a few things and make a couple of contacts. Ever since I read The Secret Life of Bees, years ago, I have been fascinated with bee keeping and hoped to do it someday. I am excited that the time has come and can't wait to get it up and running so we can have honey from our very own hives!

There were several kids at the meeting but Ayden was the only baby/toddler. As we entered people seemed a little surprised that he was with us. By the end of the meeting he had stolen the hearts of everyone in the room! He was quiet and mainly worked hard on putting my chapstick and a receipt in and then taking them out of my wallet the whole time.

Good little boy!

It was also a pot luck so we were able to grab some fresh strawberries for him to snack on.  He made good friends with the people right behind us and kept smiling, saying hi and waving at them:

At the end of the meeting they were supposed to have a drawing for a door prize but everybody voted for just giving it to Ayden for being so good. They snapped a picture and asked our permission to put it on their blog which, of course, we granted... If they only knew :).

Proud papa holding Ayden wearing his prize!
(I'm not really sure any of the adults would have wanted it anyway...)

On our way out we were stopped from every direction while people commented on how good and cute he is and, of course, we soaked it all up and just beamed with pride. As a parent you can't help but be proud when a room full of strangers complement you on your well behaved child. It was a really fun moment for David and me.  Someone even said, "You can tell he is really loved" which was the highest compliment anyone could ever give us as parents because that is what we want most for Ayden.

David made a few contacts and we found out about an upcoming annual "bee school" as well as an orientation of sorts for newbies like us being held in two weeks right in our town. We plan to go to both and are eager to learn as much as possible so we can be successful right out of the gate.

Ayden was so sweet all day today. He has stared blowing kisses (though his version is covering his mouth with one or both hands and making the mmmm sound) and also said "sticky" for the first time tonight while playing with my name tag. He spent a lot of time in my lap and just wanted to be close and I soaked up every second of it!

Here are a few sweet clips from our quiet morning:

Any other bee keepers out there? What is your #1 tip for beginners?

~Sarah