Hello, my dear friends....
It has been busy, busy around here since we last chatted. My sweet niece and nephew were here to stay with us for a few days which was SO much fun! They are 1 and 2 years old -- technically, they're 11 1/2 months apart in age and their mama has another one on the way!! Eee! So, since their mama was going on a trip and their daddy had to work, they got to come stay with Auntie and Uncle and we had a ball. My goal was to get them out of the house for a bit each day, to wear them out a little and to give us all a break from being in the same setting. Turns out, it worked perfectly.....we went on outings to the park, the mall and Target. But, the highlight of our outings was our trip to Deanna Rose Farmstead. It's super close to home and turned out to be sooooo cool! It will definitely be on our list of things to do every time they come for a visit because we all had so much fun AND it's free Monday - Thursday! Even better! Honestly, based on how much there was to see and do, I was shocked that they only charge admission on the weekends.
As you can see in the photo above, they're loaded in their stroller and we're on our way thru the front gate in the big red barn.
They have a hen house that you can go inside (the chickens are on the other side of a fence) -- we even wheeled the stroller right in the hen house. There were chickens in the coop as well as out in their little yard. There were also about 20 eggs on the floor in the corner of the hen house, just waiting to be collected!
One of the calves....I think they currently have 6 of them. Sweet, right? He looks so soft and fluffy!
Ahhhhh......I love this photo SO much. I broke one of the cardinal rules and let them both out of the stroller! LOL! Well, the thing is, if you let one out, you have to let them both out and if you do that.....well let's just say, you'd better be faster than they are. And trust me, they're fast! Hahaha. BUT, we were SO close to thish big black beauty.....the cow came right over to the fence to us, but his head was just a bit higher than they could reach and I just couldn't stand the thought of cheating them out of getting to pet the cow since we were RIGHT THERE. KWIM?? ;) So, I let them out and had to lift them up so they could pet Bessy's nose. (I don't really know if her name is Bessy. It could have just as easily been Pete.)
They milk the cows in the barn twice a day and if you go at milking time, you can watch that process. We were a bit late for that though.
As you can see, this little baby is pitching a fit at the injustice of having to be outside when clearly his mama was in the barn. He didn't sound happy at all.
Another one of the big beauties.....eating her breakfast.
They also have an Indian Encampment area where you can learn about the Indians. They have 3 teepees set up outside that were open for the kids to go in. ....stroller and all. Ha.
Now, I personally had a BALL watching this event! You can pay $1 to "buy" a baby bottle to feed the baby goats with! It was HILARIOUS! Ally took right to it. This little girl is not afraid of ANYthing! Haha. She marched right in and held on tight to the bottle while the goats drank it all up!
Oh my gosh........can you handle the cuteness??
Malachi, on the other hand, was much more content to just pet the goats. You see, the goats are greedy little bottle-drinkin' babies, and he had a harder time hanging on to the bottle once a goat got to sucking on it! Heee. I don't know how many times I got jumped on by the little goaties while I was trying to take pictures!
When we left the baby goat area, we wandered around to see all of the other animals, including this big old goat. He was soooooooo sweet and he looooooved Ally & Malachi.
I'm pretty sure they loooooooved him too! Just look at her face!
There are machines stationed all around the park with various types of feed you can buy for a quarter, so you can feed lots of different animals. I love that the park is set up so that even little ones in strollers can get up close and personal with the animals.
There are also 3 different playgrounds for kidlets depending on their age. These two would swing all day if you let them! So we swang...swung......swinged.....sat in the swings for quite awhile before heading home.
Just look at that face! I can still hear her saying, "Push me higher, Auntie Dawn!" Not afraid of anything, I tell ya!
We went to another park the next day and I managed to snag these two piccies before it got dark.
The last day they were here, when they woke up from their nap, they sat down to read books with Uncle Bart. Notice Buzz Lightyear and Woody looking over their shoulders?!! Hahahaha. Too funny!
And lastly for today, I leave you with the winner of last week's Great Big Giveaway. The winner is Donna Budnik who said...
Donna, if you'll email me (link in left side bar) with your mailing address, I'll get your goodies sent out to you!
Thanks for stopping by today! Hope your week is off to a great start!
Smooches,
