Rolling Ridge Ranch

On Wednesday, May 30th, our playgroup went to Rolling Ridge Ranch for our annual trip. I tried my best to make sure everyone arrived together and had a good time and I think we were very successful. We had a very fun, big group and no one freaked out like Pepper did last time. I gave Pepper a pep talk before we started and let her know that she did not need to feed or touch any animal but could just look. She did just that and spent most of her time refilling buckets. Perfect time had by all.

Our full wagon getting ready to go.

Most everyone was from church but Emily (in purple) is from  the local MOMS club that I joined. She is seated next to Emily (carrying the baby) whose daughter, Elsie is close in age to Hazel. She rode down with me and it was fun to chat about our little ladies. She is a first time mom so it was also fun to hear things from her perspective.

Ava, Morgan and Sarah. Sarah is Morgan's great friend from preschool. We invited her to join us and Morgan had a blast getting to share this experience with her. 

Let's just set the record straight, ostriches freak me out! That said, the kids thought this ostrich was hysterical. When it feeds it quickly and forcefully slams its head into the bucket. I jumped out of the way when it tried to feed out of my bucket the kids, especially, Sarah, seemed to think it was the funniest thing ever.

Laura feeding the water buffalo.

Brave, Sarah, trying her hand at it.

Hazel spent most of her time trying to get my sunglasses off or trying to grab the camera. Other than that she was content to just stare at all the animals.

Deer with fuzzy antlers. And Morgan's full bucket of feed on the ground. 

The elk pretty much stole everyone's bucket that they could get their teeth on. No matter how hard everyone tried to keep them.

In my opinion the alpacas and llamas are the most fun to feed. They are very gentle, you can feed them out of your hand, and they are super soft to touch. The kids had a great time feeding them.

While Emily was distracted tying to feed the alpaca and hold her camera, baby Elsie decided this was the perfect time to grab hold of a chunk of hair and rip it off the alpaca's head. She did it quite a few times and the animal never flinched or skipped a beat in eating. Such accommodating animals! Hazel did the same thing when Pepper got a little to close as well. Pepper was not as accommodating.

Ben, our tour guide, was fantastic and very nice. During a flat space with no animals he let the children take turns driving the wagon.

Sarah and her super stylish glasses having a turn.

Pepper decided to just hold one reign.

Morgan having a turn.

It was great fun having Sarah along. Besides being a very nice, super cute girl, she was a nice distraction for Morgan, who pretty much left Pepper alone the whole time.

A one day old baby llama.

The Brahma bull and his crazy tongue.

Sarah and Morgan were having a great time holding on to the Longhorn cattle's horn. Another girl Mary joined them. The steer was not that impressed by the kids I guess, because in one swipe of his head he knocked over all three kids and poor Mary scraped her knee. 

After the wagon ride, we all sat down for a picnic lunch. Emily O, had stopped by an Amish fruit stand on the way in and had very yummy, fresh strawberries and cherries to share with the group. My kids had lunchables and cheetos. Yep, proud mom moment for me!

Hazel enjoyed lunch as well.

After lunch, we walked around the petting zoo area. They always have a bunch of baby ducks for the kids to hold. It was a popular spot.

I love how awkwardly kids try to hold these squirmy animals. I'm just glad he didn't drop the poor thing.

Next we man-handled the bunnies. Pepper finally relented to touch these animals. I guess cause they're so darn cute.

The bunny giving Morgan kisses or trying to escape. Either way, cute picture. 

The little goats were a big hit with my kids as well. They also had a baby camel and some babies from different kinds of cattle.

Finally, the kids hit the playground to burn off the last bit of their energy and to make completely sure they were filthy before getting back in the van.

Morgan riding the wild rhino.

Sarah commanding her Hippo to not eat Morgan. Thank goodness it listened. 

Well, that was our adventure. It was a perfectly, beautiful day and everyone had a great time. After last years stresses and mishaps, I was convinced if this trip didn't go well, I was never going there again. But luckily everything went smoothly and I will probably drag my kids back next year! Yay, for fun outings.

These are all pictures from our long Memorial Day weekend. They are not all in order but you'll get the idea. It was a long, very busy, very tiring and super fun weekend thanks to our many, many great friends. Our goal was to get our garden planted and to buy a new couch. We succeeded in both pursuits and managed to squeeze in some fun with the kids as well. Saturday morning we were planning on dropping Morgan and Pepper off at a friend's house but her son got sick so we had to quickly call around to make new plans. Luckily, Krista and Chase were amazing and offered to take our two kids, along with their four, to Cuyahoga State Park for a picnic, hiking and games. That freed Cody and I up to work in the yard, go furniture shopping and stop by a local nursery to buy veggie plants and flowers for our garden. Thank  you, thank you, thank you!

After buying a couch, we decided to have lunch at Chick-fil-A. I can't remember the last time I went there without having to sit near the playplace and watch kids.

Hazel entertained us by playing with her feet and making raspberries at us. It's her new favorite game.

Here's the evolution of our garden. The overgrown bushes and super weeds on the side of the house.

Can you tell we ignore this side of the house? The windows are the playroom windows to give you an idea of where we are.

The rest of the plants. You can see which areas get the most sun. The plants get smaller as they go towards the back porch.

Hazel hanging out with some new topsoil.

Our veggie plants and hanging basket flowers. 

Cody did an amazing job digging all those huge plants out. I could not have done that myself!

Getting the soil ready.

This is what I did while Cody was working in the back. I watched our kids plus Abby and Ben play in the pool. Becky and Jerry had to do some appliance shopping for their new home. Not fun with kids. They brought lunch back with them and hung out with us the rest of the day and helped with the garden also. So blessed to have such great friends.

We're in the process of moving some of the plants from the backyard to the front and getting rid of the ugly little bushes that weren't growing.

We also moved a bunch of daffodil plants from the backyard and replanted the bulbs along here.

Taking a snack break with the kids. Ben and Hazel were very excited.

Don't worry, Hazel is not eating this apple just sucking on it and drooling like a mad woman.

Ben is a serious snacker and did not leave my side till all the food was gone. I think he even ate the drooled on apple slices when I wasn't looking. That is dedication to eating!

Next Hazel sampled some pretzel sticks. She LOVED them and so did her face.

After much help from Becky on how to space and organize the plants, this is our garden. We have seedless watermelon, strawberries, 5 different heirloom tomatoes, cucumber, zucchini, yellow squash, butternut squash, 3 different pepper plants, asparagus, and cauliflower. We thought we bought green beans but ended up with two cucumber...we think.

We will move the rest of the plants this week and finish planting the plants that like more shade. I also bought a blueberry bush and am not quite sure where that is going just yet.

Hazel making a classic face while hanging out with Becky and Jerry.

After planting was done, we had a yummy bar-b-que and treats. We had a fabulous time with our friends and are so grateful for all the help. This was a very patriotic bunch. I'm wearing a read shirt too.

On Friday night after dinner, we got the kids ice cream at McD's and then went to the park to play. 

Hazel had just woken up so she had dinner at the park.

Pepper loves blowing bubbles.

This kid had a blast chasing them. I love how quickly little kids make friends at the park. Morgan spent the whole time running around with some older kids. They weren't always so nice to him, they kept changing the rules on him, but he didn't seem to notice and had a great time.
I am exhausted from this weekend but am so excited about the garden. Let's just hope the chipmunks and other animals don't kill it in on us and we actually manage to get some yummy things to eat.
We'll keep you posted!