A trip to the Farm

This week Lily and I got to go to the FARM! The North Carolina State University has a week of "farm days" which is specifically for kids. It was so much fun! Since Grace is an NCSU alumni, she knows all of the ins and outs as well as several of the people involved. She and I took the little ones to the farm earlier this week and we had a blast. One of our friends was celebrating her daughter's birthday at the farm too so it was great to get to experience all of the animals, have lunch and get ice cream!


Lily is walking like a pro these days and all that she wants to do is be free to walk wherever she wants. She is a quick mover too so getting a picture of her is challenging at best.

We started with the turkeys and then moved onto the bunnies. Lily wasn't really sure about the bunnies, but once I pet one of them she was only too excited to give it a try.

We headed to the cows next and Lily was absolutely enthralled with them. It was so cute to watch her retreat in terror the minute the cow started coming over to where she was. This picture was taken after I rescued her from the big cow looking at her. You can tell, she was still very concerned with the location of the furry creature.


The little baby cows were so "udderly" cute. Lily and Jancsi loved watching them through the fence. We saw dairy and beef cows as well as a horse and philly.


After the cows lost there attraction we headed over to see the baby lambs and the baby goats. Sheep are not my favorite creatures, but when I saw the sheep and the baby lambs, I just had a vision of the Lord as a Lion. Lambs are just so innocently vulnerable, and the image of the Lion and the Lamb is very moving and powerful to me.


We are working really hard these days on teaching Lily to have soft hands with the animals. Her version of petting usually looks like aggressive pounding. Having to try to explain to your toddler that not every animal is as tough as her Rocky is a concept far lost on her. Overall she does a great job, but it is a constant "gently Lily, gently."


My absolutely favorite time was holding the baby chicks.


There were literally 20-30 children vying for the opportunity to get their little hands on them and I was shocked that we didn't witness several of them jumping to their deaths to dodge the onslaught of little fingers. Poor baby chicks. I picked one up and it immediately fell asleep in my hands. Lily was fairly impartial to the little bird, but quickly got her little pointer out to be sure I knew where its head was.


After visiting the animals we met the birthday party and had our lunch. Lily had a sandwich and a juice box. Look at her.....she is all grown up!


Our day at the farm was so much fun.