It's not FARMVILLE but.............

Salam to all,

@9 a.m.

Tini: Mama, where are we going today? Are we going to FARMVILLE?
Me: Huh! (then I smile). No sayang. (honey). We are going to Paulownia Park to see real farm animals.
      FARMVILLE is just a computer game.
nilah bahananya kalau mak dia dok buang masa layan FV kat FB. huhu.

Actually this morning, we went for a trip to Paulownia Park which was not very far from the playcentre.
It was our second time there as we went there in November 2008. I was still excited to bring my kids there as I reckoned the experiences would be different.

When we arrived, Tini and Hafizah spotted few ponies and straight away went near the fence. The ponies were busy eating hays and out of the blue, one of the ponies, gave us some "lovely" saliva spray! We had to leave the ponies alone and moved to a well. I thought it was only a well, but it was actually an aquarium that contained some fish, plants and rocks.

Before we started the farm visit, we had to gather around the farmers; Farmer John and Farmer Megan. (they were our guides) Farmer John explained some things that we had to do when we see the animals. He also asked us to sing some songs, "I have the pony ears" (it's a signal for the kids to listen
to adults instructions) and "We will rock you" (a song for the pony show at the end of the visit).

Farmer John then invited kids 3 yrs and above to go for a hay ride behind his tractor. Fathini joined the big kids and couple of other mums for the ride. The last time we went there, Fathini rode on the 

hay ride with her "maksu" (her aunt). She was still excited to ride on it this time bcs she's bigger and

she's find by herself. The rest of other mums and little kids and babies had to follow Farmer Megan 

to see and feed the ducks. I thought that Hafizah would be okay and excited to feed the ducks. But I was wrong because once we were inside the fence and the ducks were coming at us, she started to scream and cry. So, we had to go out and just watched the other kids and other mommies feeding the ducks. When Fathini and the other big kids joined us there, I asked Fathini to go inside to feed some ducks. She was so brave (maybe bcs she's older than Hafizah) and she fed some ducks and was happy to have the experiences. 

The next animals that we went to see and feed were goats. Three not so little goats were quite gentle and I also had the chance to feed them. (unfortunately my friend only snapped  a photo of my hands feeding a goat.huhu). Fathini again didn't hesitate to feed the goats and she even asked the pellets (goat's food) from Farmer Megan few times. After the goats, we spent some time with the chickens.
Hafizah and I were the only ones staying outside bcs Hafizah didn't want to go inside. I managed to
take some photos of Fathini feeding the chickens. Farmer John also showed us the different eggs from
different hens. He made a joke too when he asked us why there's no egg from one chicken. We didn't really paid attention until Farmer John said "Of course there's no egg bcs chicken "A" (I can't remember the name given by Farmer John) is actually a Rooster!". By 10.30 a.m., some of the kids
started to feel hungry. So, Farmer Megan suggested that we had to take a break and had our morning tea. While Farmer John invited little kids with their mums to hop on the hay ride for the second trip.
I asked my friend Dug, to keep on eye on Fathini while I had to accompany Hafizah on the hay ride.
sebenarnya mama Fizah yg lebih2 nak naik hay ride tu.ehehehe. nasib baik Tini tak kisah dan dia tahu nak cari mana lunchbox dia.

At the beginning of the ride, there was Anna who wanted to come along but her mom was not so keen. She asked me to take care of Anna and I didn't mind at all. However, after only 2 minutes on the ride, she started to cry. Farmer John had to stop to take Anna out of the ride. She was happy again once she was returned to her mom. Farmer John continued to drive the tractor and he brought us along very bumpy road. Along the way, I had couple of photos taken. We also had some music bcs Farmer John gave us a small tool (look like MP3 but it was not) that has a button. When we pressed the button, there's some music.

We returned to our first gathering spot and we could see the others were having their morning tea. 

I found Fathini had already had her yoghurt. While we were eating our morning tea, I didn't take any photos as I was busy helping Hafizah to have her food. I shared the curry puffs with some of my friends. They loved it. (again no photos) dah karipap buatan sendiri tu sgtla tak fotogenik rupanya.hehe It was not long after the morning tea, we were brought to one more spot where we could feed cows. The cows here were a different breed from the other cows that we normally see

here in Hamilton. Fathini helped herself to the hay after Farmer John asked the kids to get some hay and feed the cows. Some kids couldn't wait for the cows to come and they just ditched the hay. Hafizah once again was just being the observer.

The last and the highlight of the visit was the "Pony Show". We were able to see three little ponies

performed some tricks. We had to watch outside of the arena as the ponies needed some spaces to

move around and they were quite fast. The ponies were originally from Timor Leste. That's why one 

of the ponies was named "Janna". Some of the tricks were walking on its two feet and we had to sing 

"We wil rock you", Janna also wore her own sunglasses and running around the arena. By the end of the show, most of the kids were restless especially the babies and toddlers as it was their nap time. 

We certainly gained other experiences this time and I was glad that Fathini had the chances to be

up close to the farm animals.