Fall Fun at Vale Wood Farm

"Baby Ben" - a calf with a perfect 7 on his face

They were squealing, "Cow! Cow!" as they ran up to this big picture

Exploring straw. Fascinating stuff if you are under age 2.

Don't like sandboxes? Try corn boxes!

My very near and dear friend Shannon and I met up today for some fall fun. We started off at the sunken gardens of St. Francis something or other... it was a monastery across the street from St. Francis College in Loretto, PA. Anyway, it was kind of wet and not the right season to properly enjoy it, but we could tell it would be smashingly gorgeous in the spring and summer. We plan to go back next year to enjoy it once again when there are flowers and waterfalls.

Next we went over to Vale Wood Farm (http://www.valewoodfarms.com) and weren't quite sure what to expect there, but it was fabulous! As you can see from the pictures above, it was quite the farmy day for our little ones. Joel and Zarya were just barely old enough to really enjoy it, which means we can keep going back for years of more fun in the future.

In addition to games (everything from corn slingshot launches and hay slides to a table with toy tractors on it), there were piglets, goats, chickens, peacocks, and a calf with a 7 on his face. Apparently if you are a football fan, you immediately think of some Pittsburgh Steelers player who is #7 and named Ben, but to me and Shannon, it was just cool that little Ben the calf had a 7 on his face, and to our toddlers, it was just ridiculously exciting to see a calf up close. We appreciated that they also had picnic tables for us to eat our sack lunches, toilets (you'll recall I'm quite pregnant, so this was a must), and lots of grass for running around. We didn't even get around to the adult or kid hay  mazes or go on a hay ride farm tour, but should we have had older kids who didn't require getting home to take naps, that would have been fun, too. Our kids were more at the corn box stage, and that was fine with us. Shannon and I got to talk and visit while they dug around in dried corn. And corn is just as much fun as sand, but a whole lot cleaner.

We finished things off with teensy weensy ice cream cones, and of course I felt compelled to buy milk, ice cream, and yogurt in the dairy store because it looked so fresh and good.

All in all, a very fun fall day!