Who's Having Fun?

Well, another first has been imparted onto the third Liardon child...Rose had her first field trip. What a way to spend a day! A mid-October, 90-degree, muddy, muggy, stinky, dirty day. Er, it was an udderly wonderful experience.

The day started off a little like this:

Who's having fun???

Who wants to ride a pony???

The answers were a not me, and an emphatic NO! Then we went on a hayride. I use the term "hayride" very loosely, as it's really just a huge wooden wagon pulled by a monster tractor across muddy, buffalo-chippy fields. I'm telling you people, gla-mour-ous. Can't you tell she was really feelin' it?

I knew what was coming--this may have been Rose's first field trip, but Mama's been around the block a few times. (Actually, Rose was here--in utero--when Thomas had this same field trip.) I knew the destination of our little "hayride." I knew it would freak her freak. I knew that the "hayride" driver was passing out pellets to feed the cows. I knew we were headed smack dab into the middle of a field of enormous bovine beasts with Pavlovian responses to the sound of that tractor coming round the bend. They want those pellets, and they want them NOW.

Oh, and I remembered why there's not a lot of hay on the "hayride..."

So, it was really okay. Rose indeed did NOT slip into a coma from the bovine visit. She smiled for the first time all morning when the tractor pulled away from the field. She survived! She lived to tell all about it. Whew.

Next, she opted out of this exercise:

I was in agreement with her on this one as well.

Next came lunch, which included an apple as big as her face.

Every field trip includes a train ride. Afterwards--the petting zoo. We listened to another mom's story about rampant ringworm infestation from sheep. I thanked her for that information. She told her story right after I told MY field trip sheep story. The one about the 120-pound sheep that mounted my back last time I was here. You heard me.

By the end of the day, it was mostly smiles. She warmed up nicely. And got a sunburn. ;) I did mention it's mid-October, and the heat index was 100, right?

And would you look at this?!?! She's smiling AND petting a billy goat. Miracles do happen.

The day ended like this. She's the cutest scarecrow I've ever seen.