Thursday, September 19, 2013

Weekend Outing

Last Sunday was Open Farm Day.  First off I must say that I was thrilled to have found out about the event before it actually occured instead of from an evening news report after the event is already over.

My only complaint was that the event was held on the weekend when I had no children with me - well, two of my sons tagged along but they're really young adults not children.  We didn't have much time - weekends are busy times - so we only went to one of the participating farms.

With a time limit on our excursion we needed to pick a farm that was nearby.  It was an easy decision - Perimeter Alpacas - because alpacas are basically the same as llamas and we LOVE llamas.  Granted, alpaca isn't nearly as fun to say as llama but seriously, look at them;

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SQUEEEE! I just want to hug them;

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I managed to drag myself away from the alpacas long enough to see some ducks and and a peacock family too - pretty birds but not soft and fluffy like an alpaca.

There were some other displays and sales of products from the farm.  I bought a stuffie - handmade from alpaca fleece.  After I paid for it the woman asked "Do you want a bag or are you just going to cuddle it all the way home?" -- silly question;

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Of course I would have preferred an alpaca shaped stuffie - they had one but it was out of my price range.  Still, I do love this one too.  My cats also love it but they'd like to shred it so I have to keep it out of their reach.

I've brought the stuffie out for the children to see/feel.  It would be irrelevant to try to 'teach' them anything about alpacas without any actual experience with alpacas.  However, it has been very useful for our discussions about 'gentle'.  With four infants/toddlers 'gentle' has become an important part of our curriculum.

Be gentle and take turns - difficult lessons even for me when you've got something so lovely that you just want to squish it and never let go.

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