hockley oil ranch

our first field trip for our little preschool was this morning at hockley oil ranch.  it was so fun!

we started off by visiting the cows.  the kids got to try out milking her.  this cow's mother and baby were out in the corral, so they had three generations!

cody and isaac's american gothic - obviously a bit distracted.

there were lots of preschool groups, but it didn't feel busy or crowded since there was so much to do.  the longest we had to wait was maybe 20 minutes for the horse ride (which we traded off so the kids could check out the other animals in the barn).

even isaac was old enough to ride.

cody was practically born a cowboy.  he loves it all.

trying out the tractor.

i attempted to show cody and isaac how to lasso...cody did better than i could!

the barn had a huge slide and hay pile.  makes for great playing!  olivia and cody are up there at the top, so you can see how tall it is.

kimmie and i lined our kids up .  i couldn't believe isaac was almost as tall as olivia!  she's a full year older than him and also pretty tall for her age.

our favorite part was the hay ride out to feed the cows.  i have to say, i have never seen a cow run, let alone run as fast as these cows did when they saw us coming on the trailer.  they just stuck their heads in and ate up ever bit of food anyone had.  lots of the kids were a bit squeamish about it, but isaac got right in there and fed the cow.

there was also a little train ride that was fun.

bonnie especially loved the train ride because i got her out of the ergo and she could see all around.

some parts reminded me a lot of the p-6 farms where we pick blackberries.  only one of the pumps really worked so we had some disappointed kids that had to wait for a while to get a turn.

the boys could have stayed rolling in these (who knows what they're called?) all day long if we'd let them.  even after multiple spills, they still loved them.

cody did great riding on this giant swing.  they basically just had to sit on a little knot and hang on tight.  isaac made me a bit more nervous when he rode it.  i was glad i ran around with him as he decided he was over it in about half a revolution.

isaac did better climbing up the hill.  down was a bit of a challenge.

the goats were fun to see.  cody and olivia both found a littlest, medium and biggest billy goat like our story (there was a bridge by the pumps that they trip trapped across early in the day)

this nice worker showed the kids all about the goats and took olivia specially over to meet olivia the pig.  the pig came clear across the sty when he called.  it was so cute.

cody found a scarecrow just like his halloween costume!

we went out to feed the cows one last time before we left.  most of the preschool groups left before us, so we had the run of the place.  we thought several things had closed down, but they were just waiting since they didn't have anyone to ride.

our last stop was the huge pillow.  i didn't want to get sleeping bonnie out of the ergo, so i missed it, but kimmie and katie b. looked like they were having a great time.  

we should have taken a picture with our whole group.  this is what was left at the end after ford's, mcburney's, and thompson's went home to pick up their older kids.  each of the kids picked a pumpkin and we tried to get a picture of all of them together.  well, i guess it just shows all of them being them!  

we had a great time out there!  roz set the field trip bar pretty high with this one!