A nice day at the farm

Our homeschool group planned a field trip to Smith Farm in Cadwell, GA today. I am so glad that we were able to go. For only $5, the kids got to go on a hayride, pet and learn about some animals, play on the playground, play with some water, learn about strawberries, pick a small container full, and get a strawberry ice cream!

We started with a hayride. It was fun to ride around and see the whole farm.

After the hayride, we got to learn about several different animals, many of them babies. Some of the cutest were this baby Hebron donkey that was only about three weeks old, and some baby goats. Sophie couldn't get enough of the donkey. When they brought him out to feed him a bottle, she just hugged him and stroked his little head. It was so cute!

This was really cool. The man working there showed us the donkey's back. He told us that this was the same kind of donkey that Mary rode to Bethlehem and Jesus rode to Jerusalem. He has a marking in the shape of the cross.

Here's one of Isaac and our friend, Bethany. So sweet! Bethany's parents adopted her from China several years ago and now they are waiting to pick up her new sister. She's just one of several children in our church that have been adopted.

After the animals, we went over to this neat water pump thing. The kids could work the old fashioned pumps and have rubber duck races. My kids just liked playing in the water.

Especially my little guy!

Before we went out into the field, we were taught about strawberries and how to pick them properly. She warned us not to pull hard on the strawberry stems because it could pull the plant from the ground and kill it. Ok, so I'm immediately thinking about my son. I know that he will not hesitate to pull on the strawberries as hard as he can. We were also told to only pick the ones that were completely red. Umm...ok. I know that will be a challenge with little man. So I knew I would have to really focus on him. Thankfully my friend, Paige, had agreed to come with us and she helped Sophie. Time to start picking!
At first I was right on top of Isaac, telling him no, trying to hold his hand and pick strawberries at the same time=not easy! I started showing him the right ones to pick. Then, before I knew it, he grabbed one! I thought...oh, no, there goes a strawberry plant! Thankfully the plant stayed intact and I was pleased to see that he picked a solid red one! Yay! So we worked together and filled the rest of our container. He did a good job!

Sophie did a good job, too!

What a fun day! I hope we get to do this many more times in the future!