Since Ella was 3 I've been lucky enough to accompany my kids on field trips. I love it. Love every trip. I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to be a part of most of these adventures, and I even like being chaperoned around town in the school buses when I go on the elementary outings. Really. Ella's first field trip was to Harmon's Farm in Lexington, SC, and since that initial excursion, I've visited no less than one farm a year. Perhaps part of the schools' affinities toward trips that are all-things farmish is the fact that we live in a rather rural state. Compared to the bright lights and big city of New York, South Carolina on the whole is small. We may have a sky scraper and a half in the entire state. Seriously.
After Harmon's, Country Adventures was the most popular children's farm for the kids' teachers to visit, and that place never disappoints. Don't get me wrong, Harmon's is cool. In the fall, they offer hay rides, a jaunt in the pumpkin patch, and a sweet for-kids play ground, not to mention the Christmas trees that they grow on site...however, this always makes me a little anxious in anticipation of the inevitable procrastinating that encompasses me around Santa Claus time. Country Adventures does step it up a notch in some regards. What it lacks in Christmas trees, it makes up for in spades with the farm animals. Kids can pet sheep, cows, horses, and little donkey things (I can't tell the difference between them and mules). They can chase and scare the poop out of the chickens and other odd-looking poultry, and terrorize the bunnies. Poor bunnies.
For Summit's first real field trip (the 3-year-old one was a wash; literally, it got rained out), we were directed to new digs, or sties, whatev. Fox Farms is in West Columbia, and because I didn't realize that there was farm land in West Cola Town, we were late as a result of me following my inner, and historically wrong, GPS. If you're wondering, yes, I have an app for that on my iPhone, and, yes, I was convinced that that app sucked and was misdirecting me, and, yes, I was hugely mistaken in ignoring said app's directions. Again, whatev.
Fox Farms, once we got there after driving through a neighborhood full of 70s style houses (hello? it's West Columbia!), was A-W-E-S-O-M-E, awesome, awesome, to-tally. Since we were fashionably unreasonably fashionably late, poor Summit missed the hay ride. That sucked for him, but I felt more sorry for myself when I realized the photo-ops that I'd missed out on. Luckily, we got there in time for him to be a part of the class picture before the wee ones got off the tractor. Ah, well. He's young. He won't remember not going on it. But, he'll have the picture to help him create a memory of having gone on it. Wait. Is that okay?
Anywho, we quickly caught up with the rest of the class for the tour through the animals. I should preface this with the fact that Summit's class this year is made up of all boys. Wild little boys. Stinky little boys, as evidenced by the smells I was fortunate enough to encounter one fine morning a couple of weeks ago when I was speaking to the fellas about some book that they were all interested in. And, by the way, BARF! I have no idea how Mrs. Dawn and Mrs. Dani endure that grossness. It truly was stomach-churning.
So, on to the animals. Or, should I say the animals visiting the animals. It was precious. Though, when Summit and some of his buddies found feathers, the likelyhood of my son interacting with the feathered friends was gone with the wind. Why? Because he smelled a feather. Apparently, those things stink, and when Summit realized the odor was not his cup of tea, the opportunity to get him to touch a pigeon (yeah, I know; who keeps a thing full of pigeons?), pheasant, or baby rooster was out the door like a republican at the Democratic Convention. It freaked him out. Thankfully, he was down with petting the llama, goats, sheep, weird horned African-looking cow, and ram. Unfortunately for the free-range chickens, Summit and a pal or two thought they would be GREAT to chase.
After the animals, we moved to the final order of business. The owners of Fox Farms had buried a pile of small pumpkins beneath a bunch of hay. On Mr. Fox Farm's command, the kids were to all begin digging through the hay in search of the perfect pumpkin. Great idea, but what a mess. There was hay everywhere, and, thanks to Summit's strange deal with having stuff on his hands, he was kinda wimpy about the whole thing. In the end, he selected a beauty of a pumpkin, and he was so proud of his orange treasure.
All in all, Fox Farms was a smashing success. The kids had so much fun, and I was reminded of how lucky I am to get to experience all of these moments with my sweet Summy. I love him so.
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