FARMVILLE!!

September 30th: Disney Vacation Part I

This past week, my sister and I took our kids and spent 7 glorious days with my parents in Orlando. Thank you GG and PopPop for an awesome week!! It was kind of a last minute fall trip, so unfortunately daddies didn't get to come this time. We stayed at Disney's Old Key West which was totally amazing, but for the second time, I did not take my kids into Disney World. Ha! My poor kids don't know how close they have come (twice!!) to Cinderella's castle and Mickey Mouse... shhh, don't tell them (*wink*). But never fear, we are taking a big Disney trip in January with the Monk family, and we WILL take my girls in to the parks!! HURRAY!! I'll talk about our whole trip in my next post, but in this post I'm going to talk about our amazing trip to the farm outside Orlando.

We almost didn't go to the farm because it was pouring down rain all night and everything was super muddy. In fact, per the news, this was the wettest September on record!! It rained every single day we were there!!! Thankfully, we decided to put on our grossest clothes and just brave the mud, and I am so, so glad that we did!! Because of the rain all the field trips had cancelled, and we pretty much had the run of the place. It was so fun!

I learned something that day about Blakely and animals; my girl is fearless!! There was not an animal she didn't want to pick up, hold, pet, feed, kiss (ahem) and love on! She even held a spotted gecko and petted a hedgehog. With her parents medical background and her love of animals, who knows... maybe she'll be a vet or a zoo keeper!! Love her.

When we got to the farm, we told the kids to wait for us to unpack the car. This was the sweetest moment. Blakely was holding Banks back saying "Wait for Mama B," and telling him all about what she was seeing.

Some days they fight like cats and dogs, but deep (some days REALLY, REALLY deep) down they love each other completely and would defend and protect one another to the end. They are true cousin/siblings and best friends!!

This farm was like heave on earth for Banks! Go-go and tractors everywhere, animals and mud! What more could a boy ask for?

First thing on the tour, they showed us how to milk a cow. They even let the kids give it a try.

Blakely was a little shocked when milk actually shot out!

This animal is called a zorse- and yes it is what you get when you mix a zebra and horse! So crazy.

Blakely kept telling us "I like this one! He is brown." No sheep racism in our family.

We were the first tour of the day, so all of the animals were really hungry.

This picture cracks me up! I love that all three of them are stacked on top of each other.

The kids got to hold baby chicks and ducks.

Again, Blakely was completely fearless and extremely fascinated with all the animals.

I think that chick is afraid of that Banks shirt wants to eat him!!

This baby duck was obsessed with the buttons on Blakely's shirt and kept trying to eat them. Blakely would giggle like mad and yelling "Ticklish!"

The kids got to a huge wild boar, wart hogs and feed some pot bellied pigs.

They did a great job feeding the pigs, probably due to all their practice feeding giraffes!

We got to feed the goats, but we were not allowed into their pen, because a kid (ie baby goat) had been born at 3am the night before!! It was so adorable and still really wobbly on its little legs.



Katy Ellis even liked all the animals. These 4 goats went crazy for PopPop!!

One of my favorite things they let us do was the hen yard! We were taught how to catch and hold chickens!! We had a blast chasing the chickens around and kids loved it when we caught them. I felt like "Little House on the Prairie!"

We are a little excited about our success at catching chickens! HA!

1/4: Blakely tried really, really hard to catch a chicken.

2/4: She'd get really close.

3/4: Then she'd get down on her knees.

4/4: And that (REALLY SMART) chicken would scoot right out of her hands!! But she was super brave and tried really hard!! Next time girlfriend you'll get that chicken.

Next we went to the duck enclosure. And Blakely tried again to catch one... but they were just too fast.



But not too fast for GiGi!!

...or for Mommy!!

Mallard 1/4: Banks really wanted to catch a mallard duck.

 

Mallard 2/4: So his DeeDee tried really hard to catch him a mallard duck.

Mallard 3/4: And FINALLY I caught a mallard duck for Banks, and how was I rewarded????

Mallard 4/4: ...with tears!! Banks wanted NOTHING to do with that mallard duck after I caught it. Ah, well. Better luck next time DeeDee.

Blakely really, really wanted to catch the Peeking (it's Chinese, and yes that hair on his head is real!) duck. These ducks are really BIG and fast, so I enlisted our guides help and caught Blakely's duck. She kept telling the duck, "Ooooooo, pretty hair!" HA!

 

It rained off and on all morning, and we got a little bit muddy... which, I think just added to the fun and adventure of the day.

PopPop (per usual) was a champion. All three kiddos at once! KE in the Bjorn and the two bigs in the wagon. Go PopPop!! You are our hero!!

But at the farm, don't take you  eyes off Banks for a minute... or THIS happens! Ha! He almost climbed in the pen with Indonesian cattle! Probably not the best pen to choose, B!

At the end of our tour, we got to go on the kids very first Hay ride!!

This girl here loves her Gigi!! So thankful that she has such a fun, creative, adventurous GG who is not afraid of a little mud and muck!! You are the best GG!!

Blakely and Banks even got to go on their first pony ride!!

It was a MEGA-HUGE hit!!

When Blakely got off her pony, she kept singing "Sheriff Blakely's wild west!"

So, so proud of my brave girl!!

Banks loved it too.

He looks so big up there in the saddle!!

After pony rides, they took us on a train ride all around the farm. I know, best day ever for the littles!!

They absolutely loved it!!

There was also an indoor petting zoo with bunnies, parrots, guinea pigs, tarantulas, hedgehogs and a whole host of other kinds of animals!!

Blakely even got to hold a spotted gecko. I am telling y'all... FEARLESS!

This is a baby hedgehog; they hide their face when you hold them. But if you lightly blow on them, they will lift their head up so you can see their little face. (No- his name is not Sonic. And-no- he was not very fast).



By the end of our day, the kids were so covered in mud that we had to strip them down and rinse them off in the sink! Nothing makes for a great day quite like going home in a diaper.

We had a fabulous day at Green Meadows farm, and I would highly recommend it to anyone in the Orlando area with Toddlers. Perfect adventure for our kiddos, and a great way to start our vacation!