Head butting a baby cow

Or at least I don't THINK the cow head butted Kath. Naw, she did it to the cow. Then said, "Owwww!"

We took the girls to Kristy's Barn and went apple picking and pumpkin picking. Alex loved to pick the apples--the higher up the better they were--and Kath loved to take bites out of them--to make sure they were sweet enough. Quite the side show we are. Then we picked pumpkins. That was fun--trying to lift each and every one. I suppose you only know the true value of a pumpkin if you can lift it and its stem doesn't 'bite' you. Coaxing them into walking to the far reaches of the farm, easily reached by hay wagon ride by other parents, we made our kids walk. Alex picked out her favorite bright trees and Kath tripped over every other (getting better) pot hole in the grass. Finally we reached the petting zoo.

At first Alex was a little perturbed by being so close--as in right next to-a calf. But when I reminded her that she rides animals 5 times bigger--and with bigger teeth--she relaxed. Kath had no qualms about going right up to them. As they lay on the ground--probably overfed by kids all day, Kath walked right up them and dumped her whole cup of food in front of the first animal she met. Ah, forgot to explain what we were doing and how to divide up the food so it would last through the whole little paddock. Oh, well. She didn't care that there wasn't anything in her cup. She had a cup and the poor calves didn't know there wasn't anything in it. Might explain why she eventually was head butted, but I will get to that. We saw goslings, ducklings, turkeys, pigmy goats, hens and roosters. We fed (Alex was better at dispersing her fare and getting me to fork over more money for more cups) them all. We also tried to avoid being pecked by terrified turkeys strange little boys chased and cornered. That might explain why THEY (the turkeys, not the boys)took cups of food out of unsuspecting children's hands and then practically wrestled the cups to the ground. This happened to Alex, who looked at me like she was going to cry. She was so amazed at the rudeness of the turkey she stood there stunned and looked at me. A father came over and gave her food for her cup and she snapped out of it. :-D Kath however looked at this and was upset, she started to cry until I made a joke about the turkey being like Bucca when she steals a toy/sneaker/you name it.

We had a lot of fun there. Roger waited outside the fence for us. Not sure if he was hoping to rest (that didn't happen-he was halfway up the fence watching the crazy boys chase the crazy turkeys closer to us) or if he didn't want to try to step gingerly through the assorted animal poop. :-)

As we were leaving the paddock the cows finally decided to get up and walk around. They were bigger than I thought. The girls had to watch out because the cows didn't. Not where they were trodding or where they were pooping. Then one little adorable calf who was chest high on me must have been smelling the food on girls. She nuzzled Alex first, then nuzzled Kath. Then they banged heads.

I am the kind of mother who has belly laughed as Chris puked in my car all the way home from the mall. I laugh when people bang their heads, walk into things, do assorted painful things to themselves. I am a horrible person. I actually feel bad for them, don't get me wrong, but I can't help but see how funny it would look/how funny it looks.

Kath said, "Owwwww" in a bit of an annoyed voice. I started laughing! Then I yelled over to Roger (cuz I am classy too), "Did you see her head butt the cow??" He couldn't because we were behind the ducklings' fence. You will have to take my word for it. It was funny. And the cow walked a little crooked afterward. Kath walked straighter. :-D

Then we walked all the way back, bought our cider donuts and paid for our stuff. The wagon ride was next. And it was free! The girls loved sitting (ahhh) and looking around the whole farm on our hay ride. Alex and I decided we would start a farm in the next few years and have LOTS of animals. I told her she needed to help me take care of the ones we had to get into practice.

The day was great. The boys were missing from it or it would have been perfect. The weather was beautiful. Warm. Blue, blue sky. The leaves look like they were lit from within with the intense reds, oranges, yellows and greens. It was great.

I just wish I had gotten a picture of Kath and the calf bumping heads. :-D