Fall Fun One Month Later

We went back out to Cox Farms on Friday for a birthday party. It was a wonderful party for a four-year-old friend. Her mommy made “Happy Birthday Meals” for all the kids – a paper bag, with each kid's name on it, containing four chicken nuggets, a cheese sticks, apple slices, pretzels, and a drinkable yogurt. That seems like the perfect little kid lunch. My kids loved it! She also had pizza and pasta salad for the adults. She made dirt cake and ordered a Thomas cake for the birthday cake (she wanted to make the cake but her daughter wanted the one from the grocery store).

It was just one day short of being a month since our first trip this fall to Cox Farms. I have to say that one month of gross motor development made a huge difference for Lydia. I think the motor learning from the first trip also helped her. I saw two major areas of improvement. The first was her ability to go down the slides sitting up by herself and keep her legs together so as not to get a foot stuck on the side or flip herself around or over. Second, she did much better walking up the hills to go down the slides. I still carried her some just to speed things up but she took a lot fewer falls walking up the hills and over ditches and other uneven ground.

I did have to go down behind because she didn’t always slide to the bottom of the slide and it also took her awhile to stand up and get off the slide on her own – mainly because she was in no hurry to do it. So, I went down behind her and gently “crashed” into her (which she loved) and then picked her up and carried her off the slide so the person behind us could go.

My parents were already planning to come up this weekend to celebrate my dad’s 70th birthday. They always leave before sun-up because they are so excited to see their grandkids. I asked them to just meet me at Cox Farms since it is on their way to our house. It was a big help to have them at the birthday party and for just playing at the farm. My parents thought it was a good value for $9 a person because there is so much to do (even though they didn’t go any slides). My mom said that her favorite thing was the hayride because there is so much to it.

Nanna and PawPaw on the hayride.

Every time the tractor gets "stuck" in the water and this farmer comes up to help "pull" the tractor out of the water. My kids crack up over this but it scares some of the kids.

There are all kinds of wooden cartoon characters to look at on the hayride but my favorite is the Invisible Man.

It was a little cold on Friday. I didn't think it was cold enough for gloves but Wesley insisted on wearing them all day.

We call this the "L@keside Slide" after the big slide at the now closed park in Salem, VA. I took this picture of the Wrights.

My kids are rather fearless. They are not afraid of the slides or the hayride or anything at Disney World but they are terrified of the goats. Well, they like the goats when a fence separates them. We bought cake cones filled with goat food for a $1 a piece and then went inside the goat pen to feed them. The last time the goats quickly took Wesley's cone away so my dad and held the cones for Wesley and Lydia this time. They still hated the goats pressing up against them.

Wesley actually started crying. He told me on the way out to the farm that the goats would scare him again and make him cry again. I realize that most moms would have just skipped the goats but I was hoping that things would be better this time around. Also, Wesley gets over stuff like so quickly that I was willing to try it again.

Lydia with her favorite character.

Wesley and Hunter.

The kids loved playing on the tractors.

We didn't stay as long as we did a month ago. We left about 3:30 (an hour earlier). The kids were asleep within minutes.