"E i addy oh, we're going to a farm!"

We really enjoyed going to just about the whole of General Conference last weekend between us. Then on Monday it was Rachel's 10th birthday. She woke up to balloons and birthday banners, spent a little time looking through her baby book while waiting for breakfast, and then was sung to and blew out the candles on her breakfast! She likes what they call "banana breakfast", with some berries added in. It's sort of cakey in consistency, so it worked!



After breakfast Rachel got quite excited about the day, and was gaily singing "e i addy oh, we're going to a farm" going upstairs to get dressed and ready to go. Jeans, top and wellies on - of course - this girl wants most of all to live on a farm, and opts for this on many days in an attempt to be living her dream. She desperately wants us to have animals, or at least one, which is something we're not up to doing right now, but will be in the future somewhere. So with some thought her best option for her birthday was visiting a farm. There is one around here that has been mentioned to us by two people, so that's where we went. First stop they were all fascinated but wary of the extremely speedy chickens. Peter felt much safer half way up a fence, but even better in Mummy's arms!





Rachel enjoyed the various animals around the farm. She and Hannah were in their element while helping groom the shire-cross pony they had there. Peter felt a bit safer with the Shetland ponies, but had a go too.






Her favourite of all were the rabbits though, especially the babies. She kept going back to them while the others played outside for a while (Peter was desperate to do this rather than look at animals), and had to go back there one last time before we left. Hannah I think liked the guinea pigs a little more. I, with my fascination for colour, just loved the peacock's tail feathers!!








I sat down to rest my heavy bump and my back for a while while the children spent some time in the playground there, and was joined by a cockerel who flew up onto the back of the bench I was on and proceeded to crow and crow to another cockerel a little farther away. They kept answering back until a boy came along and scared him, so the friendly cockerel quickly flew onto the picnic table towards me. I didn't fancy a cockerel in my face, so that was enough for me to move. I still loved watching their colours though as it pecked around my feet.






Here's a few of some of the children playing.







Peter kept coming back to this picture board as he could stand on the hay bails behind it on his own and loved to climb up there and stick his head through the holes. :o)







Rachel wanted to stay around for the afternoon milking on the dairy farm. We were all pretty hot and wiped out by that time, and went to play in the hay barn, which we hadn't found until that point. Amazingly, it was just what we all needed! Rushing around, getting buried with hay somehow refreshed and enlivened everyone although the odd person was a bit itchy afterwards where the hay had got inside their clothes a little too much! It was really fun in there, and felt just lovely. There was another Mum playing in there with her children, besides Michael, and it was just fun. We had mixed feelings over the milking. Treatment of animals is not always what it ought to be. It was interesting especially for the younger ones to watch though as they wouldn't remember when we last watched milking at a dairy farm in Wales, and Peter wasn't even born yet. I think Rachel and Hannah enjoyed it too.












We got home much later than we thought we might, so had a quick birthday tea, and then Rachel had a welly boot treasure hunt to find her birthday gifts before going off to bed, happy and tired from a day at the farm. :o)