Green Meadows Petting Farm

I was going through pictures and found some of a fun adventure Katelyn and I went on with friends...back in April.  A group of us moms and kids went and visited a huge and fun petting farm.  There was tons of free open space for kids to roam and play and lots of friendly animals to interact with.  

We fed a lot of animals and Katelyn had a love-hate feeling about it.  She would get nervous to get close, but loved the tickle once the animals started licking and using their lips to get the food out of her hand.  Any aggressive animals, like the sheep and goats, she didn't like because she needed them to be calm for her to feel safe.  This big cow looking animal was the only animal I had never heard of or seen...called a brahman.  They were very calm and had a weird but pretty look to them.  Smooth fur, but weird lumps and bulges. 

Katelyn loved the bunnies and guinea pigs.  She was just barely tall enough to reach over and be able to pet them.  She would giggle and get really giddy when she would pet them or if they would run across their box.  She was always very gentle and never pet any of the animals too roughly thank goodness!  Some kids would be so aggressive and I could see years of their animal life being smothered out of the poor things.  Katelyn was very kind to her animal friends :)

 This turkey cage was interesting.  She saw the turkey keeper lady holding one for people to pet so she kept holding her arms out to go pick one up, but then the male turkeys would strut their stuff and try to look macho and they didn't look so hug-able anymore.  Katelyn really wanted to get close, but kept realizing how big those guys were and that they were nearly her size and ended up leaving them.  This was about a ten minute back and forth process though, but she just didn't have the courage to take on those "men". 

 The baby chicks definitely looked hug-able!  I was holding one and had it cupped in my hand and Katelyn couldn't stop her happy feet to get a good soft hold on one.  She really wanted to hold one, but they were so squirmy that I didn't want her to squish it trying to keep it in her hands or drop it which would hurt it or leave it running around on the ground which was prime for being stomped on by the other excited kids. 

 If Katelyn wasn't on the lookout for more animals, then she was busy with the babies.  There are two little baby girls that came with us and they are so smiley, which Katelyn loves!  She likes to tickle them, peek at them as they sleep covered in their car seats, put their pacifiers back in their mouths (and if they babies don't want it back in their mouth, Katelyn assumes they are playing a game with her and will keep putting it back in every time they spit it out), and Katelyn absolutely loves every chance she gets to hold these little babies. She feels "I so bid" (big) and so helpful holding those babies and even if they start fussing, she doesn't want to give them up.  

There were some baby cows that Katelyn loved and then there was a cow that we all took a turn milking.  You have to be pretty aggressive to get that milk out!  We all laughed at how it too closely resembled all of us in our current or close enough nursing days and we felt a little embarrassed for the cow.   We are all glad we aren't that cow.

This metal "baaa"(some animals are still identified by the sound they make instead of what they are called) was a little nerve wracking for her, but I was a mean mom and wanted a picture of her on it so I put her up there and got a good shot of her reaction.  It is kind of a "C'mon Mom!  Seriously?!"

 It was a fun group of kids roaming around enjoying the animals!

 We finished it all off with a horse-pulled hay ride singing Old McDonald and B-I-N-G-O  around the farm.

Katelyn loved to dance and run in the open fields.  She had just "mastered" her new twirling move with her ballerina arms.  There was some music going near the main enterance that was just asking to be danced to.


Such a fun day that wiped all the kids out for the drive home.  A great place that we will probably visit more than the regular zoo.