A Day at the Farm

Over Columbus Day weekend in October we enjoyed some family adventures. One adventure was at a Fall Festival in Mount Airy, MD at Gaver Tree Farm. They had lots of fun toddler-sized activities made form hay and corn.

We started the afternoon by eating a picnic lunch brought from home.

After we ate, we fed the goats. The girls really enjoyed this and we spent a long time giving the girls each a few tiny pellets and then watching them feed the pellets to the goats.

We saw a ton of other animals, too. The chickens were Theia's favorite. She wanted to go back and see them again and agian. She must have Grandma DeShon's genes. We also saw bunnies, alpaca sheep, pigs, cows, a peacock, and a turkey.

When we'd had our fill of the animals, we enjoyed a variety of play areas made from straw. This was a straw jump. The kids spent some time running and jumping and trying to cover daddy and Aliyah up with straw.

Aliyah and I took a break on the straw tower. The girls climbed up this a few times, but were a little hesitant of the height.

The farm had a couple of tunnels and mazes sized just right for our girls. Theia most enjoyed this tunnel of straw.

Much to our surprise, both girls LOVED these big slides. We thought they would be afraid, but instead they went down again and again. In fact, Theia wouldn't ride down with Joe, she insisted on riding by herself, just like big sister Xandra.

The tricycles were too big for our girls to reach the peddles. Daddy pushed them both for a short time and even tried riding himself. No one was too successful, so we moved on to a more appropriately sized activity.

Joe and the girls enjoyed this obstacle course. He showed them how to do each obstacle and they followed behind. Xandra was able to do most of the things on her own, but Theia was just a little too small to have much success unaided.

Our last stop before a hayride was the pirate ship. The girls were a bit too small to play with much of the ship, but they each enjoyed the slide.

We took a hayride out to the pumpkin patch and back. We didn't purchase any field pumpkins as we had a whole crop of our own in our yard. We did, however, purchase some baking pumpkins: a Long Island Cheese Pumpkin and a Cinderella pumpkin (it looks just like the pumpkin that is turned into the coach in the story).

We enjoyed perfect fall weather: sunny with a hint of coolness. Long after my kids are grown I imagine days like these are ones I will remember and cherish: being together with no restrictions on our time, exploring simple things, laughing, playing with abandon, and being wowed by slides and tunnels made of straw. Days like this make me think: I love being a mom to three little girls and a wife to Joe. Thanks, Lord, for the blessing of this family.