Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Hill Ridge Farm

So we started school on Monday. After just two days of doing school, we decided that it was time for an outing. Yep, that is right: one of the home school bonuses. You can be flexible with your schedule and work out some fun days when the mood strikes.

My eldest two have been to Hill Ridge Farm with friends before. For me and the youngest two it was a new adventure. Now, normally we would not go to something like a theme park farm. In part this is because of the cost. In part, the fact is that we already live on a farm, and we can go to parks with slides and swings for free.

But I will admit that we had a glorious time from kiddos figuring out how to get through a maze, to feeding the large catfish, turtles, and ducks in the pond. My boys weren't really interested in the goats and rabbits (apparently they are too used to seeing them at home:'). Then there was playing in the corn house (which is a house filled with over a foot of loose corn). It is amazing how much time was spent throughout our stay in the corn house. The boys loved burying each other, making a monster pile, and just swimming in corn. Then there was sliding down a long plastic tube in the side of a hill siting on a piece of burlap sack. The tubing for the slide is corrugated, so as you zoomed down squealing there is a vibrating echo. I know this experience from growing up. But now I was the only grown up using the excuse of having to go down the long slide with a kiddo. I am so totally a kid at heart. One bonus of being heavier is that you definitely go faster! Next the kids hit the bouncing pillow. This is one large blow up bounce pad. The splash pad was a great way to cool off.

Then the friends that we had come with needed to leave. But my boys were not ready to leave. So we headed to the hay house. Each boy got on a hay mound and then proceeded to wage war on each other. The boys then hit the long tube swing. At one point we had all of us on the long straight tube swing. I sat astride holding onto Chrysogonus. We had it going, I think, as fast and high as it can go. We were definitely getting some stares. The older three boys enjoyed sliding down the blow up water slide. Cyprian took Cletus with him on the tube slide and water slide. Cyprian would wrap his arm around Cletus and say, "Go!" Part of Cyprian's enthusiasm stemmed from realizing that the heavier you are the faster you go. Still, it was really quite sweet to see the two smiling and giggling as they raced down. After numerous bathroom breaks and eating all kinds of snacks that I thankfully had packed, I decided that it was getting to be time to leave. We ended up going through everything again just to get one more thrill. And after bouncing in the barn house and going through maze backwards (well, at least Cletus did), reluctantly the boys and I made our exit.

Last of all, I proudly gathered the boys together and set them up for a photo to commemorate our day. This was no easy feat. Cyprian was the only one tall enough to reach the hole. I put Chrysogonus standing on his stroller (I kept having to convince him to stay up). Both Clement and Cletus had to be hung several times to reach the hole.

So here you have it, folks: The foursome Kleins after their glorious day at Hill Ridge Farm, in a sequence of photos that demonstrates well how hard it is to take a picture with four little boys. I would have joined the photo and become the pig, but alas there was no one around to take the picture:')