A day out at Crowe's Nest Farm

Today I went on my first school field trip. I went in to school at the normal time this morning, then Mom left to take Hazel to her school. About an hour later, I was surprised because Mom came back. The next thing we did was pretty exciting -- we got on a school bus with all the other pre-k classes! It was great. We sat in the back seat and we had seat belts but no one rode in car seats. It was loud. There was no air conditioner so all the windows were open, and the bus driver played the radio for us. It was fun looking out the window and it was a really bumpy ride! Every time we went around a corner or over a bump, all the kids yelled "whoa!" It was very fun, but I held on tight to Mom, especially at first.

After about a half hour, we arrived at our destination, Crowe's Nest Farm. Crowe's Nest Farm is an educational place for kids and a place that saves wildlife and animals that were once pets (but shouldn't have been) and now need a safe place to live.

When we first got there, we went into the barn, where we watched a video about the farm and one of the farmers told us all the rules, including the fact that we needed to stay on the trails so we wouldn't run into any black widow spiders or snakes in the grass or the woods.

Next we looked at turtles and lizards in pools in the barn. We weren't allowed to touch them because if they bite your finger they won't let go and they could have salmonella. Then we went to another barn, where we saw a real, live cow. The farmer told us all about cows before hooking the cow up to a machine and milking her.

Mitch & Linh at the pumpkin patch.

After the cow, we went for a hayride. We saw bison and ostriches. We learned that bison have to be two before they can have babies and the ones they had are only one. They really like to eat! When they saw us coming, they ran to the fence and when the farmer gave them food, they gobbled it down. The ostriches were funny looking! The farmer told us they run very fast, don't like playing with people, and have dinosaur feet with two toes. He also showed us one of their eggs. The egg was big!

We next headed back for a nice picnic lunch. I sat at a table with all my friends and had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, an orange and some pretzel goldfish. It was great! Mom was glad lunch was in an open air, covered pavilion because it was starting to get hot outside.

After lunch, our class had time to tour the farm on our own. We saw many animals, including goats, a duck, a goose, many weird chickens, a porcupine, a coati, llamas, emus, ponies, many types of cows, and pot belly pigs, just to name a few. We wrapped up our fun day by picking a pumpkin for our class out of the farm's pumpkin patch, then headed back to school on the bus.

I was really wiped out by the end of the trip and made Mom carry me, but stayed awake to enjoy the (much quieter, since everybody was so tired out) bus ride home. It was really a great day and I can't wait to go on more field trips!

Check out our pictures here.