Apple Picking -September 19, 2012

This day was so much fun. The Mops group that I am in had a play date with all the kids to go apple picking at Simmons Farm. I had never even heard of this place, but it's apparently a farm in the middle of a neighborhood, and you can pick your own apples and flowers, or whatever other fruit is in season. There was also a petting zoo, and I heard that later in the season they will do hayrides and pumpkin picking and whatnot. Awesome. 

I was excited to go because the first Mops meeting of the semester was last week, and I missed it while we were in Gettysburg. It was a bit of a drive to get there, and scheduled when Amelia would normally be close to nap time, so I was a little skeptical at how well she would do, but she did awesome. The weather couldn't have been nicer, and she was so excited to run around outside among other kids. 

She definitely didn't help with the actual picking of the apples, but she had a great time picking up the rotten ones on the ground and running off with them while laughing a little maniacally. 

Evidence of the evil laugh. 

 She kept running off into rows of trees that weren't ready to be picked yet, and where no one else was. This kid has no sense of needing to be close to an adult. If we let her, she would happily run off into the distance, and possibly never come back. Gotta keep a close eye on this one. 

When I wasn't chasing her down and dragging her back, I was trying to stop her from taking the apples out of our bag. Between running around after her, and her taking apples out of the bag, it took some time to get it filled!

Failed attempt at getting her to sit under a tree next to our bag. She sat for about half a second. 

Do you see how happy she is to take the apples out?!

And do you notice the lack of people in this area? That's because she's the only one who took off this far. This is actually her coming back, she had been even further. 

After apple picking we all went back up to the shop area where some kids played in a big sand box filled with dried corn. There wasn't much room for more kids in there, so we wandered around and checked out the fall decor before heading down to the petting zoo area. 

It's kind of hard to see in this one, but if you look close, you can see an extremely excited and happy face. She's looking at a goat and laughing. 

This is the giggle inducing goat. 

She had SO much fun chasing after all the animals. She would just go right up to them and laugh and pat them. Her current favorite books at home are anything with animals, so I shouldn't have been surprised at her eagerness, but I have to admit I was a little shocked at her bravery to go up to the ones that are so much bigger than her. Especially since this is the first time she's been this close to any animal besides a small cat or dog. 

She made a valiant attempt to go join the goats, but I stopped her. 

So this goat right here, caused a little bit of a scene. This is Amelia running up to him, while he was being fed by that little boy. Right before she could even get to him, he made a sharp turn to the left, knocked Amelia flat on her back, and walked right over her!! His feet never touched her, he just stepped over and around her. The funny thing was that she wasn't phased by it at all. I put down the camera and helped her up (which I think is pretty decent of me considering I really wanted a photo of her getting trampled by a tiny goat) and she just laughed and took off after him! I know for sure that if I had been knocked down and stepped over by a goat, I would be crying and running away from him. She must get the fearless thing from Tom. 

Again, it's from the side and hard to see, but I just love how happy she was around these little guys!! Almost makes me want to run out and get her a goat ;)