whobody petted the zoo?

On the Saturday of Labor Day weekend, Jason and I decided that we would squeeze in

another family fun night 

 before he got busy in the field.  SO...I had heard about a place called Strawberry Hills Petting Farm Zoo (or something like that :) by Strawberry Point...

and we decided to give it a try.

 

We grabbed some dinner to go at the Burger Barn on the way...and headed to Strawberry Point.  We had a little trouble finding the place *mostly because I forgot to look at directions before we left.... but once we found it we had a blast!

 

 The kids first just explored the animals on their own.  Seriously, this place is pretty cool.  They had all sorts of chickens, pigeons, ducks, peacocks, an emu, a rabbit, geese, goats, donkeys, a llama, calves, pigs, a horse, a baby deer AND most importantly, and the kids' favorite...tons of little kitties running around.

 All 3 of the older kids LOVED exploring the animal cages and holding the baby kitties. 

 

There was one kitty in particular...(see below) that followed us...and continually jumped up on Cruz's stroller and rode along with him. 

 

I really did not LOVE this....(yuck) but Cruz did. I guess that this kitty usually does that with a grandkid or nephew or something who is there often. 

 

Lola's highlight of the night was when the owner of the farm gave peacock feathers to all of the kids!  Turns out peacocks drop all of their feathers every fall...and then grow new ones in the Spring. (I was relieved to hear this because otherwise I was thinking that there was something seriously wrong with those peacocks.)  Lola's favorite animal is the peacock....and her sole mission in life at the fair was to get a feather...now she finally has one...and it is proudly displayed in our laundryroom.

 We did get the official "tour"....and as a part of the tour, the owner actually got the rabbit out of it's cage and let the kids hold it! They loved this too!

 

 

 

 

 

The llama totally tried to give Nash a KISS....he loved it!!! 

 

(As I am typing this...Nash is sitting beside me...leaning on my shoulder....saying over "No me like llamas....no me like llamas..." then "yes me do like llamas....look Mom....I smilin!" {imagine all of the L's said as W's....so more like "no me wike wamas...no me wike wamas....yes me do wike wamas....wook Mom....i smi-win.}) 

 

Too funny.

 

 

 

 

Of course, Nash loved all of the cutouts...and pretend houses....

 

 

Lola was the most "hands on" of the kids. She is an animal lover to the core!

 

 

We actually got to go INTO the chicken barn.  The kids loved this...and really enjoyed seeing the behind the scenes stuff. 

(Even looking at these pictures makes me want to bathe my kids....I love animals...but always feel so dirty....augh. I will have to get over that one.) 

 

 

Okay, when we were in with the chickens....the owner let the deer in.....okay, seriously, this thing was relentless.  It really wanted Cruz's binkie! I did not take this picture on purpose, I was just trying to take a picture of the deer by Cruz.....but just as I snapped it, "Bambi" went for Cruz's binkie

 

{more play by play commentary by Nash..."bambi wuvs Coozie Mom...but Coozie no wike bambi!"} 

 

We actually ended up taking Cruz out of the chicken barn after this because both the goats and the deer were trying to EAT the stroller!!!

 

 

The funniest part of the whole night was that...of all of the animals that the kids got to see and touch...their favorite was the KITTIES! Too funny...this was the deciding factor in us getting kitties for our "farm". 

 There were also a few fun play areas for the kids.  We ended the night there....

 The kids loved the straw maze/obstacle course...although, my 2 blondest kids with extremely sensitive skin...had the itchies the whole way home.  Ice cream seemed to help with that though. :) 

I was happy to let them take a bath the instant

 we walked in the door!!!

All in all we had a GREAT time at the 'farm' and will definitely go back again. 

We are so lucky to have neat things like this so close to where we live!!!