Yesterday morning, Zachary and I set off to the deepest, darkest Stevenage to go and see Lorraine and her nearly-two-year-old daughter Melissa.
Zachary gave Melissa her birthday present when we arrived, and despite it being five days early, she was allowed to open it. Much to Zachary’s joy, she asked him for help. We’d got her the HappyLand Sunflower School, to go with some other HappyLand items she’d received previously. Judging by the grin on her face as she pushed the people down the slide, she was happy with our choice.
During the week, we’d been deciding what we’d do when we met up. Something for the kids to enjoy was the prime motivator, so Lorraine recommended Woodside Farm which as well as having farm animals is also home to a leisure park and mini-zoo.
We arrived, purchased some food for the animals and started wandering around looking at the animals. Both Zachary and Melissa fed the llamas, sheep and goats, though Melissa did like a little encouragement and often asked for me to hold her while she was holding her hands out. Thankfully in this farm/zoo – unlike in Menorca – the llamas didn’t spit on me!
Before lunch, we headed to the ‘Animal Encounters’ shed where a couple of the staff showed – and allowed us to touch or hold – a two day old chick, a chinchilla, a corn snake and an eagle owl. Lots of fun!
After a quick lunch, we all took a tractor ride around the farm, Melissa excitedly sitting on my lap and bouncing up and down and with Zachary waving to everyone, and all the animals, as we trundled round. When the tractor came to a halt, Zachary insisted we go to the park, while they both munched on ice-creams.
A fun feature of the farm is the number of brightly painted old tractors they have embedded in the floor. Here, anyone can go up and clamber all over them, onto the engines if they wish (which have been sealed against little fingers), or just in the seats and turn with big steering wheels.
The lure of the funfair soon proved too much for us, and soon we were all sliding super-fast down the helter skelter and going round the carousel, and spinning in tea-cups to traditional fair ground music! Both Zachary and Melissa caught ducks and won prizes of balloons (which I then tied to annoying places on the pushchair) and bounced away on the trampolines.
By this time, the park was literally empty, apart from us, so we quickly saw the remaining animals – some pigs, sheep and the poultry – and then, as it was getting chilly, headed back to the car to go home. On the walk back, I managed to end up with Zachary on my shoulders and Melissa in my arms; quite a sight.
Back at Lorraine’s the kids had a yummy dinner and then Zachary and I set off home, exhausted. I hope there will be many more days like that in our future!