A Day On The Farm
Today was Christmas Day at Ardenwood Farm which is an organic, historic farm in Fremont. We had the best time there!
Our trip started out with a train ride (I'm using the word "train" here very loosely) because we can't go anywhere without riding a train. Bettie & Quade still get terribly excited about riding trains.
The train took us through groves of eucalyptus trees where we saw over 1,000 monarch butterflies. This grove is one of their overwintering sites. The site of these butterflies was breathtaking!
What appeared to be clumps of dead leaves were actually clusters of hundreds of monarchs.
After the train ride, we listened to a live jazz band playing Christmas favorites and then the kids did a Christmas decoration craft. Bettie & Quade never used to like crafts, but now they love doing projects. I'm pretty happy about that!
We watched a real blacksmith at work. Predictably enough, the fire was the best part.
We bought hot dogs & chips (their only offerings) and ate a picnic lunch while listening to the music.
Afterwards, we watched a puppet show based on the Nutcracker. We saw our friend from school, Charlotte there and we all sat together. The puppet show was fantastic!
We, of course, had to visit all of the animals. Here are some of the better looking ones...
Isn't this peacock gorgeous?
Bettie was begging Andy for a horse drawn carriage ride, but at $40 a ride? I think not.
When I was tucking Quade into bed, he said, "Mama, I had the best day EVER. Thank you for taking me to the farm!" Of course, I just completely melted and told him that I had a wonderful time also.
I'm always probing for more information, so I asked him what parts of the day he enjoyed the most. His reply? "The Doritos you gave me at lunch"....Classic!
Our trip started out with a train ride (I'm using the word "train" here very loosely) because we can't go anywhere without riding a train. Bettie & Quade still get terribly excited about riding trains.
The train took us through groves of eucalyptus trees where we saw over 1,000 monarch butterflies. This grove is one of their overwintering sites. The site of these butterflies was breathtaking!
What appeared to be clumps of dead leaves were actually clusters of hundreds of monarchs.
After the train ride, we listened to a live jazz band playing Christmas favorites and then the kids did a Christmas decoration craft. Bettie & Quade never used to like crafts, but now they love doing projects. I'm pretty happy about that!
We watched a real blacksmith at work. Predictably enough, the fire was the best part.
We bought hot dogs & chips (their only offerings) and ate a picnic lunch while listening to the music.
Afterwards, we watched a puppet show based on the Nutcracker. We saw our friend from school, Charlotte there and we all sat together. The puppet show was fantastic!
We, of course, had to visit all of the animals. Here are some of the better looking ones...
Isn't this peacock gorgeous?
Bettie was begging Andy for a horse drawn carriage ride, but at $40 a ride? I think not.
When I was tucking Quade into bed, he said, "Mama, I had the best day EVER. Thank you for taking me to the farm!" Of course, I just completely melted and told him that I had a wonderful time also.
I'm always probing for more information, so I asked him what parts of the day he enjoyed the most. His reply? "The Doritos you gave me at lunch"....Classic!
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