Our Trip to the Farm

We had the best day today! Today I took the kids to a farm that is used primarily to host Christian retreats and meetings. Many of their activities are also available to the public - which is why we went.

First we enjoyed the petting barn. Tyler thought the chickens rushing to eat the corn he threw in was hilarious. We saw lots of brown eggs on one side. On the other side of the coop, we saw some fuzzy looking black hens that were sitting on eggs. We heard tiny "peep peep" sounds and looked closer to find a little fuzzy chick sitting next to a broken egg. When we came back later, we found another little chick. There were llamas, goats, sheep, horses, a cow, a donkey, cats, kittens, and a pot-bellied pig to pet (if they let you). The chickens, goats and cats were very friendly. There was a hay maze for the kids to crawl through up in the loft inside the barn.

Once we were done in the barn, we headed to the bunny hut. There were several cages of bunnies. We could open the cages and hold any of the rabbits we wanted to, as long as we put them back in their own cages when we were done. To the kids' delight one cage held a mommy with her baby rabbits. As Danielle says, they were adorable! We had to visit the bunny hut twice because the kids didn't want to leave the babies.

After I finally convinced the kids to put the baby bunnies back, we went to see the deer enclosure. Tyler loves deer. The lady at the registration center told me the deer would come running when they saw us because they like to eat the tall grass on our side of the fence. Sure enough, they came running. The kids got to feed and pet the deer. They were surprised that the deer's antlers felt velvety. (Danielle was also surprised the pig felt "bristly".) As you can see, we found a non-velvety antler on the ground, too. Tyler was delighted to get so close to the deer.

When we were done feeding the deer, we headed over to the stables. I have been protesting our zoo because they doubled the price of the pony rides (among other things) to $4 PER KID for a small walk around a tree 1 TIME! Today we "rented" a pony for $5. We were supposed to have her for 1/2 hour, but we probably could have kept her longer if we wanted. After the "cowboy" (as Danielle called him) got us set up, I led our horse Valentine around an enclosure while the kids took turns riding her. They had so much fun! It was such a good deal for the money, and it was the ONLY thing that cost us any money today!

After the pony rides, we played in the playbarn, rode the wooden horse, and "drove" the tractor. We revisited the bunnies and kittens, found a restroom to thoroughly scrub our hands, and headed home. When Ron got home from his trip tonight, the kids talked non-stop about our time at the farm. It was such a great time. Finally, this was one time when the real event played out even better than I had envisioned in my head!