Take Me to the Faaaaarm

I usually look at the weather forecast first thing in the morning to determine what our day's activities will be. Today was predicted to be lovely and cool and indeed, it was about 75 degrees with a few puffy clouds in the sky. "The farm!" I thought. A perfect day for the working farm about 30 minutes away that is open daily to the public.

Here's the place where a quote about best laid plans would go.

The kids love animals. I talked to them on the way about where we were going and that we would get to see animals. They were so! excited! We got to the farm and I decided to forgo the stroller that they would be begging to get out of immediately anyway and we set off into the farm.

Here is a list of things we (read: Pacey and Brighton) did while at the farm:

Pick up rocks
Pick up more rocks
Find sticks and threaten each other with them
Climb on rocks
Jump off rocks
Attempt to climb fences
Plop down and refuse to get up
Refuse to walk
Scream to be carried and then thrash about like a fish out of water
Sulk
Examine sheep poop and try our very hardest to step in it

Here is a list of things we did not do at the farm:

Look at any of the animals for more than 2.2 seconds
Walk cooperatively
Listen to a single syllable uttered by any figure of authority (that would be me)
Thank our mother for a wonderful, educational and exciting outing

I really have to work hard in these situations to remember our objective for the outing: for the kids to have a good time. Does it matter that all they wanted to do was sit down and play with the rocks? Not really. They had a blast. I'm pretty glad we didn't pay for it though (it's free).

There were two moments that made the whole trip worth it for me. The first was when we ran into a group of several young adults with disabilities and another young woman who had clearly brought them to the farm. The kids were excited to say hello to them and shake their hands, which brought smiles to all their faces. One of the young men had Down syndrome and seeing Pacey greet him, two stubby-fingered hands coming together, was amazing. One of the other young men was deaf and pointed to my Twins t-shirt and gave me a thumbs up. He was wearing a Vikings t-shirt so I responded in kind, throwing in the sign for "football" (thanks Signing Time!) His face totally lit up and he grinned from ear to ear. Awesome.

And finally, when we were on our way out we ran into three farm hands that were attempting to lead four sheep to a different pen down the path. These sheep were so hilariously stubborn - they were pulling on their rope leads, digging their heels into the path, dropping down onto their knees, and finally just laying down and refusing to budge. I literally could not stop laughing at this scene, so incredibly similar was it to the last hour-and-a-half I'd spent trying to cajole my own little animals around the paths. I felt SUCH sympathy for the poor farmhand that got stuck with two non-compliant sheep...he looked as close to throwing in the towel as I feel many days.

And here is the proof: "See kids, I took you to a damn farm!"

"And look at THIS one"

Brighton "washing" Pacey's back with a stick

Master Sulker