Outdoors

Winter Finally?

Posted on by Amy
We have had the most wonderful weather so far this winter.  So far the temps have been mild.  In the past week most days have been at least in the 40s.  Today was around 50 degrees!  So far we have had very little snow.  Not even enough to cover the grass yet.  
Naturally with such beautiful weather, we pushed nap time back today and played outside after lunch.

Who would miss out on this for nap time?

We can sleep plenty tomorrow.  Notice I stressed above that the weather has been great so far?  Well, it’s supposed to get cold tonight and start to snow.  I think we’re predicted to get 3-5 inches tomorrow.  Honestly, around here in January, that’s not really that much.  But we probably won’t be doing this for a little while:

I’m sure the girls will also enjoy finally getting to play in some snow.  But they’ll be so bundled, the crazy carefree running and playing of today might be slightly less unencumbered.

This will probably especially be the case for Lass, whose little body will be back in “I-can’t-move-my-arms!”status with her snow pants and heavier coat.  The girls are quite interested in the snow though, so I’m sure they’ll enjoy it when it comes.  Somehow we still have a few small patches of the white stuff  that have survived the warm weather.  Of course the girls went right to them.

“It’s cold!”

We’ll still try to get out and have lots of fun in the snow when it comes.  I’m kind of looking forward to snow angels and snow men and Daddy pulling the girls around on their little sled.  Kind of.  I’m stocked up on hot chocolate and soup, and The Daddy has been building some fabulous fires in our fireplace on the weekends.  So bring on the snow.  It can be winter finally.  We’re ready.

Santa Came to Town

Posted on by Amy
We were at the Farm over the weekend for Christmas with my husband’s family.  The girls got to have tons of fun playing with their cousins.

The grown ups got to have lots of fun visiting.  This is a photo of me with my also-pregnant sister-in-law.  She is due about two weeks after me.  The woman brought O’Doul’s.  Gotta love a fake beer on Christmas Eve.

And then of course, the Christmas festivities began.  We opened gifts with the family, which is kind of crazy since my husband has five siblings.  There were 14 adults and 13 kids opening and slinging wrapping paper all over.

It was fabulous.

One of the biggest gift “hits” was this “Rody” for Miss from my husband’s parents.

Daddy blew it up and away she went.

It caused a bit of friction once Little Sister noticed it.

She was pretty upset at not being able to ride it right away.

But Big Sister is such a sweet girl, she let her sis have a turn,

hovering nearby the entire time, of course.

And, time’s up!

It’s a really cool toy.

Finally, Miss got distracted and Lass got to have a bit of time on it.  Oh, the holiday drama!

After family gifts, the kids all went downstairs to wait for Santa.  In my husband’s family, Santa arrives on Christmas Eve before the kids go to bed.  They have to wait patiently downstairs for him (while the moms put out stockings and all the Santa gifts upstairs).

When he arrives, he makes lots of noise stomping around and “Ho-Ho-Ho-ing.”  The kids scream and run up the stairs, hoping to catch a glimpse of him before he gets into his sleigh and rides off.

We all got to see him as he ran out of the house and back to his sleigh waiting in the grass.  Unfortunately one of the older cousins may have seen him a little too much.  He said to his mom something like, “I wish we got to have the real Santa, not the one with dark hair and eyebrows.”  I guess the wig wasn’t quite straight on my brother-in-law!

When we went back inside, of course the girls had a blast with all their presents.

Miss got the two Care Bears she asked Santa for, and they haven’t left her side since.  Here she is reading one of her new books to Grumpy Bear.

In my last post I wrote about how Miss has been insistent about wearing her “ballerina costume” of leotard, tights, and ballet shoes.  The trip to the Farm was no different.  I told her she had to wear some nice clothes for Christmas dinner and family gifts, and we compromised by putting her nice clothes on over the ballerina costume (if you look at some of the pictures above you can see her little ballet shoes). After getting her Santa gifts, the “real” clothes were off and she was back in ballerina mode.

I finally got her out of the ballerina costume when we went on a treasure hunt on Christmas day.  I told her she needed to wear warm clothes and that her ballerina costume really needed to be washed while we were out.

The weather was chilly but beautiful, and as always the treasure hunt was memorable.

Lass was a bit like the little brother in “A Christmas Story.”  she was so bundled up she could barely move.

Miss found some shells and some acorns for her “treasures.”

She got to check out lots of interesting things, like this deer rub.

She got to examine some mushrooms growing on these trees

And look at these little berries.

Lass fell asleep during our walk in the woods.

Overall, the trip to the farm was a great time for all.  And when we came home, the girls found that Santa had been to our house too while we were gone.  He left some gymnastics mats, a balance beam, and a baby doll high chair (which so far has only been used to feed pizza to Care Bears).

Oh yeah, Santa left bubble wrap too.

I am still trying to get things back in order here after so much holiday traveling. Yesterday I folded six loads of laundry and I still have more to do!  The toys aren’t all put away, but they’ve at least all made it into the house now.  The spare room in the basement still has wrapping paper strewn all over the floor.  But the traveling was absolutely worth it, and we had a magical Christmas.  I hope you did too.

I Love a Treasure Hunt

Posted on by Amy
My husband hunts deer.  He is a bowhunter, which means he spends a lot of time sitting up in a tree watching deer.  He loves observing deer and the other animals he sees while sitting in a tree for hours and hours (this year he saw a bobcat twice).  Eventually, he does kill a deer.   This year he killed two.  Our freezer is fully stocked with venison to last for the next year.  This is great, because venison is much healthier to eat than beef. It’s leaner and you never have to worry about hormones or antibiotics or anything else weird and gross like that.  Some people prefer to get their meat at the grocery store, where they never have to think about how it got there.  I prefer venison.  I know where it came from, have a good general idea of what it ate, and know how and by whom (my husband and brother in law) it was butchered and processed and packaged.  
All this is leading up to the point that we got home last night after spending a week and a half at the Farm while my husband hunted.  And also to give the warning that there are photos near the end of this post of some dead deer.  The photos also have my handsome husband and adorable older daughter in them, but if you don’t like photos of dead deer, you may not want to read this entire post.  I’ll give a warning right before those photos come up, so you can feel safe reading through the first part of this lovely post if you like.  
Since we were at the Farm, Miss and Lass got to see their cousins and spend time doing fun things like going on treasure hunts.  We went on an especially fun one yesterday.  Because the water is so low, we went to the beach, where there was lots of room to walk around and find treasures.

Miss got to see the work of some beavers.

 And my husband found the coolest and biggest caterpillar I have ever seen.

The kids also found a partial skeleton of what was probably a raccoon.

It’s so fun to just go outside and turn a walk around the beach or the woods into an adventure.  Anything Miss picked up, from a hickory nut, to a shell, to a pine cone could be called “treasure” and she was all into it.  Treasure hunts are one of my favorite things about being at the Farm.

The girls had lots of other fun times playing with their cousins over the past weekend too.  Dress up was a favorite.

Prior to this weekend when all the aunts and uncles and cousins came down, we were just all hanging out together with my mother and father in law.  As I mentioned, my husband spend a lot of time in a tree, but we had lots of fun with him when he came in.  We indulged in some special treats, like ice cream, since we were on vacation.

My girls like ice cream.

And we spent a lot of time just playing.  Miss had fun with this guitar one afternoon.  She has really been into singing lately, often making up her own songs.  The other day she started strumming the guitar and singing a song that went something like, “Mommy and Lass and Daddy and Miiiiissss. You’re so cuuuute and so adoooorable.”

I would tell her what a beautiful song it was and how wonderful her singing is, and then she would stand up and strike a proud pose next to the guitar, come over to me and tell me, “I love you Mommy,” and then do it all again.  I don’t know how many times she repeated this, but it was a lot and I loved it.  It was cuuute.  And adoooorable.

Okay, here’s your WARNING: Dead deer photos follow.

My husband shot a buck and a doe.  Miss was quite fascinated with them and asked lots of questions.  She was very interested in the fact that “Daddy deer” are called bucks and have antlers and “Mommy deer” are called does and “have ears.”

Lass lost interest much more quickly, but of course had fun being outside anyway.

I’m proud of my husband.  He’s an ethical hunter and doesn’t kill more than what we will eat.  He practices shooting his bow a great deal beforehand so he will make a clean shot when the time comes.  He spends hours and hours observing the deer and learning about them, and passes this information on to his family members, including his nephews who also enjoy hunting.  He spent a morning hunting with one nephew and helping him shoot a deer himself.  And even though it’s a little rough to be away from home with my girls for almost two weeks, I feel fortunate that we are able to go with him when he hunts.  And it is completely worth it to know that he had such a great week outside doing something he really enjoys.  He is an amazing father and husband, and he deserves that.

Of course, it’s fabulous to be home. And you’d better believe I’m going to milk my “sacrifices” of the past week and a half to get myself a nice massage 🙂

Can’t We Just Play?

Posted on by Amy
I think sometimes the best opportunities for play and learning come from the simplest things.

Like a bowl of gourds.  A couple of hedge apples.  An acorn found.

Recently I had a conversation with some people about their experiences and thoughts on their childrens’ educations.  The children of these other folks are older than mine and most of them are already in school.  It was kind of shocking to me that these other parents were talking about the importance of sending their children to the right private preschools and grammar schools so that they would be able to get into an Ivy League school when the time comes for college.  These are kids in kindergarten, maybe second grade.  I had never really heard of such an idea before.  I was surprised to hear that some people think that going to *gasp* public school is practically a death sentence in terms of one’s later educational and occupational opportunities.  My husband and I both attended public schools growing up, public universities and public graduate schools, and I think we’re both doing just fine.  We both have successful, fulfilling careers (though my professional career is mostly on hold for now, of course).  I don’t think anything would have been significantly different for either of us if we had attended fancy private schools and/or obtained degrees from Ivy League universities in terms of where we find ourselves professionally and intellectually.  We would probably just have a lot more debt.

Don’t get me wrong.  I don’t have anything against private schools.  Lots of people send their children to private schools for lots of different reasons.  Some for religious reasons.  Some are not fortunate enough to live in a place where the public school system is good.  We happen to be lucky that where we live, the public schools are great, and I fully intend to send our girls to them.  I’m not trying to pass judgement on public versus private schools.  I think as parents, we just try to make the best of what we have.  I know I want to give my kids every opportunity to succeed and excel.  But I personally believe that much of their success and happiness is going to come much more from what my husband and I teach them about life and working hard for what you want than about any particular school we could send them to, or thing we could buy for them, or whether they know their multiplication tables by age six.

After I started thinking about this whole idea, I saw an article that my cousin posted on Facebook.  It’s from Scientific American and is called “Preschool Tests Take Time Away From Play — And Learning.”  It’s a great article reminding us that the best way for young children to learn is to play and cautioning against too much stressful testing and direct instruction for preschoolers.  Again, this type of super-focused preschool is not something I had ever really thought of before.  One of the things I love about Miss’s school is that they have time for open play and exploration every day.  And they color, they paint, they manipulate water and sand and flour, they glue stuff, they grow plants and have a worm composter, they do yoga.  They learn mostly through experience rather than sitting and listening to someone teach them about the geography of Asia or the different periods of Picasso’s art.  They do preschool at her preschool.  She’s allowed to go only twice a week and it’s fun for her.

I love to watch my girls play.  They are so amazing at it.  And another thing I love?  What I think is the best “school” for little minds?  This:

No worries, this nest did not have any wasps in it!

Taking my girls outside and to other places to experience things hands on is the best thing ever.  This week Miss has found walnuts and acorns, some whole and some eaten by squirrels.  She has gotten to hold some cool fossils that have been found here (in case you’re wondering, we’re at the Farm for deer hunting).  She has seen lots of deer running, some bucks chasing does.  She has seen an almost completely eaten squirrel (she said, “Yuck”).  She has held deer antlers.  Lass has filled and dumped the bowl of gourds over and over.  She has picked up rocks and sticks, and both girls have sat and jumped in leaves.  With each of these experiences, we have talked to the girls about what they are seeing.  Miss asks questions.  Their time here and in other places where they can see and touch and play with the things around them provide such rich learning experiences.

My girls don’t have to go to Harvard.  They can if they want to, but it’s not necessary.  We will stress the importance of a good education, sure.  But they will also learn that the best education comes from embracing life and the world around them and learning from every experience.  And for now, we’ll play.

A Week??

Posted on by Amy
I can’t believe it’s been almost a week since my last post.  I have had a lot of work come my way and a 2.5-year-old who hasn’t napped all week, so I guess blogging has escaped me for a few days.  I always miss it when I don’t post for a while.  I love sorting through and choosing the photos for a post and then writing about my favorite thing in the whole world, my family.  So, what have we been doing this week?
Going to preschool with absolutely no tears whatsoever.
A little bit of baking and cookie decorating.

A fabulous play date with wonderful friends, where the cookies were gobbled up.

Trying on Halloween costumes.  Miss has been planning to be a ballerina for weeks.  Last night we tried Lass’s bear costume on her, and now Miss wants to be a bear.  I should have known that would happen.  But she is still excited about being a ballerina when I tell her about how we’re going to do her hair and what she will get to wear.  She loves wearing a leotard and has a special fondness for tights.  Plus I told her she can play with Lass’s costume after Halloween if she wants, so she seems happy with the current situation.  For now at least.

We’ve been enjoying fall.  

The weather has been crisp, but we are trying to still get outside a bit before it gets really cold.  The girls love to play with our pumpkins.

 And while showing off her muscles power lifting pumpkins, Miss saw this:

Then she just had to show off her hunting/stalking skills.

Lass got in on the fun for a minute, but seemed to not really notice or not care about the bunny, because she ended up walking on by.

Miss got pretty close to the little guy before he did this funny little stretch and hopped into the middle of this big evergreen tree.

The girls just moved right on to the next fun thing.  Most of the leaves are gone from our yard, and I’ve pretty much closed up the sand box for the year.  I guess mulch is the next best thing to play in.

We’ve just being doing our thing here.  Watching “Go Blue” today.  Happy weekend.

It’s a Girl!!!

Posted on by Amy
Yesterday, we had our ultrasound and got to see Baby.  We were thrilled to see a healthy little one, growing and developing right on track so far.  We were also able to be able to find out Baby’s gender.  Though I was pretty convinced that this baby was a boy, we were very excited to see that we are having another girl.  Miss and Lass will be having a Sis!  I’m so happy to imagine how wonderful it will be for all my girls to grow up with sisters so close in age.  Though I don’t have a sister, I’ve heard they’re pretty great.  I love that my girls will have each other.  I’m picturing some pretty fabulous tea parties, slumber parties for which we don’t even need to invite any guests, and lots of great girls’ days out.  They can do each other’s hair and share clothes and be each other’s best friends.  I love having girls.
And just in case you’re feeling badly for my husband, swimming in a sea of estrogen and nail polish… Don’t.  He is thrilled to have another girl, if maybe slightly terrified.  One of the first things he said after our ultrasound appointment was something about needing to build a 20-foot wall around our house.  But he loves having girls too. He’s gotten very good at playing Care Bears and dress up.  And our ladies are total Daddy’s girls, especially Lass right now.  
We may or may not someday have a little boy.  Of course we’d love to have a boy, though we would be perfectly happy with all girls too.  And even if we never have a son, I’m quite certain my husband will never feel like he’s missing out on anything.
Our girls love to watch football with him on Saturday mornings, 

though he is not terribly happy with their choice of teams.  So far Miss has expressed her preference for “Go Blue.”

For the record, when I bought these shirts for the girls, I wasn’t in search of Michigan wear.  I was shopping online for a few things for Miss for school and I happened to see these on Old Navy’s website.  I actually did look for Iowa shirts on there too (I’m not entirely sure I would have bought them, but I did look).  No Iowa shirts at Old Navy.

And in case anyone was wondering, when Michigan and Iowa play each other in a few weeks, the girls will be wearing neutral clothing.  Maybe I’ll just dress them in Maize-colored shirts, since both teams share that color.

We try to keep our rivalry all in good fun around here.  But I have to admit I was very excited that Miss burst out singing the Michigan fight song, completely unprovoked, in Target a few weeks ago.

Whichever team our girls choose to root for (it’ll probably end up to be the Badgers anyway…), we still all love to watch football together.  And they love to be outside with their Daddy.

They don’t mind getting dirty or playing a little rough.  Miss loves to try to climb trees.

Yesterday we were taking a look at a house on the water.  Miss went out on the dock with her Daddy, and when he told her it was time to leave she said, “No, I want to fish.  I don’t want to go!”  My hubby will teach them to fish and even to hunt if they are interested.  Miss had her first archery lesson yesterday.

I was really bothered the other day when Miss was looking out the window, watching my hubby shoot his bow.  She said something like, “If I was a boy, I could shoot like Daddy.”

I was quite upset by this statement, and puzzled, because I have never said anything like this to her, nor have I heard anyone else make such a statement to her or in her presence.  So I don’t know where she came up with the idea that she would have to be a boy in order to shoot a bow, or do anything else.


Right away I told Miss that she didn’t have to be a boy to shoot a bow or do anything else, that she could certainly shoot with her Daddy, she just needed to get a little bit bigger.  My husband was so upset when I told him what she’d said, he took her out the next day to shoot with him.  I guess she didn’t need to be bigger, at least to watch and get the sense that she was doing it.

We will always teach all of our girls that they can do or be whatever they want, if they work hard.

And they will learn to do all sorts of fun things with their Dad.

So definitely don’t feel badly for my husband.  A few people have made comments like, “Oh how exciting that you’re having another girl!  But your poor husband!”  Of course, they mean this with all good intentions and kindness.  But, hell no he’s not poor!  To quote a song by Greg Brown: my husband is “a man who’s rich in daughters.”  Yes, we are very rich indeed.

Happy Fall

Posted on by Amy
Fall is my favorite season.  I love the crispness of the air, the colors of the leaves and their lazy floating to the ground.  I love pumpkins and apples and squash and chilly morning trips to the farmer’s market where all the season’s bounty can be found.  I love open windows through which cool breezes bring the scent of burning leaves.  Fall makes me feel cozy and productive.  Like I want to snuggle up with my Loveys, but also to get out and go do stuff.
Last year around this time, we went to a local farm where they have pumpkins, apples, animals and a big rustic playground.  We had a lot of fun, though I ended up a bit overwhelmed at the end of the day, struggling back to the truck with a newborn wrapped to me, a toddler and a big bag of apples in one arm, and pulling a wagon completely loaded with pumpkins with my free hand.  Thank goodness for the kindness of a stranger who came to our rescue.  Here we are in a photo from last year. 

We went back to the same farm yesterday.  My how things have changed.  We’ve upgraded our equipment,
and the girls have grown so much.  They were both charged with the task of picking out our pumpkins.
Lass took a relaxed approach to the job.
Miss, on the other hand, was all business.
She searched through all the pumpkins and even hauled the ones she chose toward the wagon.
We met up with some good friends, and had a wonderful day.
Back at home in the afternoon, we took full advantage of the glorious weather and the mass of leaves fallen from our beautiful oak tree.
 

The girls had a blast jumping and rolling in the leaves.  Daddy got down in the leaves with the girls too, and even got buried.

And yes, I got buried too.  I don’t know the last time I played in a big pile of leaves. I was a little shocked by how wonderful the leaves smelled and how the scent transported me instantly back to my childhood.  I had completely forgotten that smell.  It’s a fantastic smell!
Happy fall to you!
 

Sidewalk Chalk Paint

Posted on by Amy
Today I got some cheap white pumpkins for the girls to paint.  I had been meaning to make sidewalk chalk paint with my $1 tub of sidewalk chalk from Target for quite a while.  It was a gorgeous day for painting outside, so we took full advantage. 
This was Lass’s first experience with painting.  I knew it would be messy.  I was just hoping to keep her from spilling or eating the paint. 
 
That didn’t work out so well for me.  Oh well.  We made more green paint.  And she didn’t eat much of it…
Miss was really showing her creativity.  Both girls did a great job with their pumpkins.

Lass had as much fun playing with the tub of chalk as with the actual painting.

 But Miss really encouraged her to paint, so they did it together.

And then Lass dumped over my bucket of water and the painting was abandoned for splashing and swirling water.

I love painting outside.  Especially with a 13 month old.  This was a Come-in-the-door-take-clothes-off-immediately-and-put-them-directly-in-laundry-room activity.  And we all had fun doing it.

And if getting messy once today wasn’t enough, well, Lass enjoyed the mac’n’cheese’ for dinner tonight.

Thankfully it was bath night tonight!

Feeling Crafty

Posted on by Amy
We went to the park on Friday for a play date.
Before I talk about how much fun we had, I must make note of the fact that these pants were the worst possible choice to put on Lass to go to a park where the ground is covered with mulch.

They’re not just fleece pants.  They’re extra fluffy, nubbly, super-fleecy fleece pants.  Watch, and take note.  Don’t put super duper fleecy pants on your kid if there’s mulch at the park.

A little while after I took the photo below, I put Lass in the sling so she could have a little snack.  The whole time I was holding her I was picking mulch off her pants.  I didn’t even make a dent in the matted, embedded mulch stuck in these things.  The big pieces came off, but the smaller fibers seriously got matted into the fabric and will not come off.  I took them off her the minute we got in the door, tried a little while longer to de-mulch them, and then put them in the trash.  They are that far beyond saving.  Who knew?

We did have a wonderful time at the park.  It was a great park.

And we were there with great new friends.  I just have to say how much I enjoy finding a new mom friend with young kids who is easy to talk to and fun to hang out with.

When we first moved here I hated that I didn’t know any other moms for so long.  It’s hard to be a new mom living far away from family and not really having any friends.  Over the years I have gradually met some really cool mom friends.  It helps more than I can explain to have other moms for support and just hanging out.  Friends who understand that when we get together, conversations will necessarily be fragmented, between corralling kids, wiping noses, answering questions from curious two year olds, excusing oneself to change smelly drawers, etc.  Friends who will grab your kid before she falls off the teeter-totter if you’re distracted for a second with another kid running the other way.  It’s an extra special bonus to find a friend with whom I have things in common besides just being moms.  The kind of friend with whom I laugh a lot and can talk about just about anything.  I have a few of these treasured friends.  Sometimes I don’t see them as often as I’d like, but I’m thankful to have them.  Friday’s play date was with a new friend (and her kids!) whom I think is going to be this type of friend.  It was a good day.

On a completely unrelated note, I have been feeling super crafty lately.  The other night, while watching Chopped, I made Miss a new tutu.  This weekend I finally finished a yarn wreath (I totally got this idea from another mom blog, Mrs. Priss) I have been working on for months.  This was the wreath in June.

I really struggled with getting the wreath covered with the yarn.  The straw wreath was not the best choice for this type of project.  I chose it because it was half the price of the foam wreath, and I thought it might be kind of cool and rustic looking.  It turned out looking fine (though not especially cool or rustic), but the extra hassle of getting it covered completely was not worth saving $3.  And I have to say I do not know the trick (is there one??) to working with yarn.  The above pile of tangled mess started out all nice and neat.  It repeatedly got tangled beyond untangling, and I had to cut it and start again more times than I’d like to remember.  Anyway, even after I finally got the wreath covered, I was so fed up with the project that I put it away for two months, until this week, before finally finishing it.  It took some nice crisp fall weather and a desire for a pretty fall-ish wreath for my front door to prompt me to pull it out, along with some great fall-colored felt.

I made a bunch of felt flowers.  Check out Mrs. Priss’s tutorials for these pretty and absurdly easy rosettes here.

Find Mrs. Priss’s pom-pom-looking flower tutorial here, and yarn wreath tutorial here.  I told you I got the ideas from her!!!  I’m totally giving credit where it’s due.

I love how it turned out!  I swore I wouldn’t make another yarn wreath, but I like this one so much, I just might.

Next time I’ll get the foam wreath though…

Animal Farm

Posted on by Amy
Fall will be here soon. It’s my favorite season. In the fall I get all excited about going to new outdoor places and soaking up every possible moment of the beautiful weather, before Winter hits us like a slap in the face…

Yesterday we checked out a local animal farm, where they have all sorts of cool animals to look at and feed. When I paid our admission, we were given three bags of bread and told we could feed any of the animals we wanted, but just to “watch our fingers.” Miss got right to feeding some goats.


We had seen two beautiful peacocks walking around free right after we drove onto the property. As we went further, we saw there were lots of animals roaming around out in the open. I noticed one of the peacocks near where we were standing and tried to get a great photo of it. I was not successful. See that goat behind the peacock?
Shortly after I took this photo, that guy and one of his pals accosted us, trying to steal my bread and completely freaking Lass and Miss out. Lass was in her stroller, doing a great job, and Miss had been feeding the smaller caged goats. These two insane goats practically stood on top of the stroller, trying to get at the stack of bread I had pulled out of the bag and the pieces that had fallen on the ground. There was a cat trying to climb into Lass’s lap too. Needless to say, I forgot all about the peacock as I was frantically trying to strap on my Ergo while Miss was working on climbing up my leg saying, “Hold me Mommy! Hold me Mommy!” and Lass was screaming bloody murder. One of the women working there came over and started trying to pull the goats away just as I was getting Lass into the Ergo, her favorite spot.

I ended up pushing an empty stroller for the rest of our visit. It was a good spot to hold the bread I guess.

Fortunately, Miss quickly forgot about the goat attack and was right back into feeding them.



This guy kind of made her nervous though.

I thought he was really fun to feed. His tongue was super long and funny.

Miss kept getting freaked out though and dropping her bread each time he’d stick his tongue out to grab it. By the way, if you can’t tell from the photos, this guy is a buffalo. I think. They had Bison there too, but they were separate, and I’m pretty sure this guy was a buffalo. There were water buffalo too, which Miss thought was pretty fun, since we recently got the book, “Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See?” in which there is a water buffalo.

This is the guy who freaked me out a little bit. Just for a second. With each of the animals we fed, I gave them a piece of bread before letting Miss do it, just to make sure it wasn’t going to take her little arm off or anything. When I held out a piece of bread to this ostrich, he stretched his neck out and grabbed at it so quickly, he startled me so much I jumped back, let out a screech, and dropped my bread.

After a second try though, he really was pretty friendly. Miss had no trouble feeding him.
She love seeing the ostrich eggs and kept asking if she could go get one and were they going to hatch. I thought it odd that they were just lying all around on the ground like that.
There were a few other odd things about the place. Like the fact that a stretch of our tour led us through this area that was full of trash,


and these. There were a bunch of them just in a pile in the trash area. Notice several of them still have fur on them? One was even a bit more fresh, but I didn’t take a photo of that one. Weird.
And many of the animals clearly needed a bit of grooming.

But, Miss didn’t even notice all that stuff. I just looked past it, after taking some photos of course, and we really did have a lot of fun.
There were so many different types of animals to see and being able to feed them was great.
Camels.

Horses. Miss loved the horses. And I loved seeing her run right up near them and then stop and stare, up, up, up at these big guys.

Lass enjoyed the horses too.
I was trying to get a photo showing how she was interested in them. What I got instead was a horse nipping my shoulder. I snapped this photo right as the big black and white one was taking a nibble. It didn’t hurt, but scared the heck out of me for a second.
I thought this pig was so funny, but was bummed that he didn’t want anything to do with us. We had to just drop our piece of bread for him, and he didn’t even sniff at it until we had walked on by.
Miss did get to feed some other pigs later though.
I loved this fawn. It ate out of our hands, and made this funny little squeaking sound asking for more.
The bison.
Eyeore.
This guy was a miniature dwarf pony. He was one of my favorites.

Birds.

Turtles.
I think these were porcupines.
There were a lot more animals too. When I asked Miss what her favorite was though, she said, “The cats.”
She loved this little bunny too.
And so did Lass.

It was a fun day. I’m glad we have something like this place nearby. I still have to take the girls to the bigger zoo soon though. Miss keeps asking to see giraffes, hippos, and rhinoceroses. So we’ll make that trip soon.