Field Trips and Dress Ups

Ian had two field trips this week! The first was to Fiesta Farm, a local petting zoo. They had all kinds of animals; horses, ponies, llamas, sheep, goats, bunnies, chickens, ducks, pigs, worms, you name it... Ian had the best time touching all the animals. Annika loves animals too, but from a distance. I tried to get her to pet a baby goat, but as soon as a bigger goat would come near, she'd freak out. I think Ian's favorite was touching the worms. This boy loves anything creepy crawly. I've considered getting a worm bin for the house to compost food waste. Click on this link if you're interested http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbjX2tt-oQw. I know my kids would love to have worms as pets. Maybe after the Summer I'll order a few pounds...

Anyway, this petting zoo/farm was set up in stations and we rotated from one to the next. There were some really cute piglets, 4 weeks old I believe. There was a sandbox and an obstacle course and even a hay ride with stuffed animals hidden in the trees and shrubs all along the trail. The weather was just perfect and after the activities we ate lunch and the kids got to feed the bunnies.

The second field trip was to the zoo train and the zoo. Ian had been asking me if we could ride the train for a while, so he was very excited. We got to ride on the newest miniature train. I didn't bring my camera, but here's an old picture of Kaelyn and Ian and the old train.

At the zoo, one of the first things we saw was the hippos... fighting! It was amazing. I wish I could have taken a video. They were probably just playing, but it made them look pretty fierce. They'd come up out of the water, clash and roll over. I think it's the most action we've ever seen from these animals. Annika really wanted to walk and that kind of slowed me down. Ian was running ahead with his friends and, despite our warnings, he tripped and fell and his knees were bleeding. He rode in the stroller for a while, but finally I got him to walk around again. I'm sure Ian would have been content to stay all day, but after lunch we had to head home so we could pick Kaelyn up from school in time.

Annika has really been into dressing up lately. Her favorites are the ladybug princess dress and lately the ballerina outfit. she's been wearing that one for three days straight, including to the home depot and Ian's T-ball game yesterday. Ian is getting better all the time. His new nickname is speedy. He can run pretty fast if he wants to. He played pitcher at the end of the game. He stopped every ball, but then had no clue where to throw it. It was hilarious. I had to wash the leotard yesterday because it was so dirty. It's the tutu's turn tomorrow. We'll see if Annika will let me.