Hay Day Fall Festival

Today we headed up to Hartwood Acres for their annual Hay Day Fall Festival.

It is the kick off event for RADical days that we have loved so much in the past.

(See HERE or HERE) 

We were really excited to take the girls.

Unfortunately, we had a late dinner resulting in late bedtimes the night before, so we (Ryan and I) weren't as excited when we arrived with two cranky/whiny lil' girls. 

But we persisted to force the fun of the festivities on them.

Starting with...

 A hay bale maze. Abby didn't really see the point, she walked right through in one shot.
(it was small)

She had a lot more fun going through again with Sarah, who took the long route.

And was pretty tickled with herself when she was done.

Okay, now we're starting to have some fun!

We got there right as they were getting the festival started, so we were one of the first to the petting zoo.  

 While they were tying all of the fences together we checked out the animals behind the fence.

and the cute pair of puppies they had there (it was really hard not to slip one under my shirt and run off).

Inside the fence was crazy!

They had cups of food or bottles of milk you could buy to feed the animals.

I'm so glad we were cheap and decided not to. The animals attacked you when they saw you had it. The sheep and goats especially, they would jump up on you to get it. That would have been disastrous if one had jumped up on Sarah or lil' Abby. 

So we were content to walk around and let them sniff us out for food.

Or chase around... this poor duck. Anytime we turned our back to Abby she would run off after this duck. It was pretty funny because he would start quacking as he ran away. Made for lots of giggles. 

Sarah was so excited to see the miniature ponies that were there to pet. 

She sure does love horses!

 Oh, and don't mind the bum staring you right in the face... on either side of Sarah...*cough cough* infact after this picture, I think you'll notice a lot of bums in the background of our pictures... sorry about that. There is only so much I'm willing to edit.

Back to the event.

Ryan being a sport for the mamarazzi. 

I do have to give them props on the petting zoo. They had so many animals there. They had goats, sheep, miniature ponies, chickens, ducks, pigs and donkeys.
Most variety I've ever seen in a little petting zoo.

We then headed over to the bouncy castle... 

 which unfortunately had a height limit... so I had to tear Abby away kicking and screaming.

(don't mind the kid pulling out his wedgie... see bum apology a few lines up)

Sarah had fun though. 

So instead I took Abby to wait in line for the train ride...which after we waited in line for a few minutes, it returned from its first and only trip to shut down. 

Yes, due to the soft/muddy grass couldn't drive it around.

Gee thanks... but the girls were content to sit inside for a picture (phew!).

A tantrum or two later we headed over to wait in line for the face painting.

Which the line went right by the booth with a live owl!

Let me revise that face painting line. 

 A tantrum or two later we headed over to wait kick and scream in line while we waited forever for the face painting. Yes we waited in this little line for almost TWO HOURS!! Call us crazy. It really wasn't a long line. But the lady did the amazing face painting... you know the kind that really makes you look like an animal... and was being far too detailed to move the line along. 

Luckily it was also by a research booth, so both Ryan and I went over and took turns taking the research questionnaire to get a free bag of chips.

 Well worth it, considering Abby was only content to be held and my back was starting to kill me. 

At long last... it was our turn!

Sarah chose to have a lion face painted on her... which the lady decided as she was talking with us, that she needed to take some short cuts on her work, and didn't put any yellow on Sarah's face to make her look more like a lion... which was okay... most people could tell she was a cat or something.

Abby picked the princess picture and got a crown on her forehead.

She sat so patiently, can you see how focused her little face is.

So worth that wait to see their little faces when they saw themselves.

Sarah definitely thought it was cool.

Lots of giggles.

Well, they were ready to move on... didn't want to let me get a good picture of the two of them...*sigh*

(yes, yes... I know, more bums in the background) 

We decided to walk around and check out the booths. I guess this was primarily tied to "green" awareness as lots of the booths were about saving energy and reducing waste. Which we didn't mind, our light company was there and gave away 4 energy lightbulbs! (sweet, those babies are expensive). 

Abby was cute walking around watching her shadow... although it did make her vere off and almost knock over a display sign or two. 

We stopped and colored a picture at one booth.

(just had to have another reason to get a bum right by their heads again... I guess) 

I don't know what the point of this sign was... I think it was a band... random.

I'm glad we went through the Hay maze when we did, because some older kids started kicking the hay bales around, so it wasn't a maze anymore and the kids just started jumping from bale to bale instead.

Sarah still found a way to crawl through and use her sly lion prowling skills to navigate through the chaos. 

Abby thought the idea of jumping on the bales was great and would stand up and yell, "SURPRISE" each time. 

The whole time on the way to the fall festival we talked up getting a pony ride. Sarah was so excited. But when we first arrived it was no where to be seen. So with sad hearts we decided to call it a day and head to the car to go home. Luckily, the direction we were heading out was right by where they set up the pony rides. We walked up to the short line (miracle) to be one of the last few pony rides of the day. 

What LUCK!

I don't know who was excited more. Sarah or Abby.

Abby got to ride Stella, a big brown horse.

And Sarah got to ride Stormy a white horse 

(who was smallish, but she didn't care, it was white).

See... look how happy she is!

Loving every minute... unlike the boy leading the horse... although I think I did get him to smile when I asked him how he loved the exciting job he had today.

With promises of ice cream when we got home and drinks of water we headed happily back to the car to head home. It was a great day... and toward the end I had forgotten all about the earlier tantrums (pony rides will do that to a girl). 

Oh, and I think that exhibit A and B will provide proof enough that it was a successful family day.

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

Can't wait for all of the free fun Radical Days has in store... and this year we are sure to go to more than just Phipps. ;)

Bring on FALL!