Saturday, October 02, 2004

Apples and orange balloon animals

We've been enjoying traditional Fall activities the last few days. On Thursday I took the morning off to accompany C's pre-school class to the local Pick Your Own apple farm--Indian Ladders--also complete with petting zoo animals and other amenities. About half the parents went along, so it was a good chance to interact with the other parents and get to see his classmates too (well, you know C, so a chance to say "hi" while being pulled far, far away from others anway...). When we first got there and were waiting for the rest of the minivans to arrive (there are probably two or three other households out of the couple hundred that have regular cars like us), a couple of the kids were playing a very tame game of chase/tag (or "grab" in C's case)--though I'm very pleased he was partaking. I started running around with them in the field by the orchard and got several kids really running for 1 or 2 minutes. It was gleeful until his teacher put the k-bosh on the game (very important instructions for apple picking of course). Since his class doesn't get outside much at all and never gets to run, it was fun to be subvert the plan very briefly and let them be kids.

C and I had our own 1/2 bushel to pick of Empire Apples; a lot of the kids helped pick the communal bag full (they're going to make apple sauce next week). He enjoyed picking them with me, especially getting boosted up for the higher ones. Our next D.A. and his children, his son is in C's class, were picking nearby so we got to chat a little in between his cell phone calls. Then we saw the animals and fed them (the kids really enjoyed the turkeys best of all--quite vocal group), and after getting the goat-lick wiped off lots of little hands we had their daily snack. Deluxe that day: crackers, pretzels and "cider donuts"--an Indian Ladders Farm tradition I understand, and cider to drink (also red fruit punch stuff I managed to keep away from C).

Then today we got to walk to a "Fall Harvest Festival" at our local Four Corners business district. There was all the traditional fall activities like a hay ride, pumpkin decorating and balloon animals (well some of them were orange). He liked these things, and while we couldn't convince him to get his face painted yet (never have been able to), he did go in the "action bounce" inflated bounce area and stayed in the whole 2 minutes or whatever. He stayed right by the net windows watching us, but we were proud of him for braving the bounce experience this time.

There were also $1 pizza slices and free cookies--our personal favorite, and other fun activities. Later we went home for a while so Sarah could rest and we could eat some more lunch, then C and I walked to Town Hall for a Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace sponsored event on the peak oil issue and renewable energy alternatives. He helped me set up chairs beforehand, and then he got to talk to Sunny the alternative energy robot! (I'm too tired to explain right now...)

We stayed for the first 40 min. of the (quite boring for him) slideshow. He took lots of upclose photos of the chocolate bars they had there for some reason, and other photos throughout the day. I'll post a couple soon.

On the walk home I asked him what the most fun thing was today and he said the rides on the chair dolleys while we were setting them up, but he also admitted that the reason was because that was the most recent fun thing; I know he enjoyed several of the more typical activities for children earlier in the day.

Enjoy the seasonal activites,
-Dan

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Which group was more vocal..the kids or the turkeys? ..smile... It's a good thing the local paper wasn't there to cover the "Subversive Father Gets Kids to Run" story. (Written by Nana... I can't get my name to list like it did another time when I posted but I will figure it out sometime...or not)