Maple Grove Days

On Saturday we ventured down to Maple Grove Days with the kids, Chad's parents, and Eli, Hope and Katrina, three of Peyton & Carson's cousins. They had all sorts of activities for the kids. A big hit with all the kids was the Big Truck exhibit where they had all types of large trucks and machinery there that you could climb up in and drive. The MG fire department even had a spot where you could use a firehose to put out the fire in a training exercise they use for people just starting out as firefighters. The kids really enjoyed that, too.







Peyton's absolute favorite thing was the pony rides. We were a little hesitant to let her go on it because she'd gotten freaked out in the past on carousels, etc., but we thought we'd give it a shot. You wouldn't have believed how much fun she had! For those of you who know Peyton, you know that she's generally pretty quiet in busy places because it's usually overwhelming for her. Well she was a completely different kid when Chad put her up in the saddle. She was smiling like crazy and the whole time they were walking around in a circle Peyton was waving and saying "HI! HI! HI!" to everyone standing around watching. Then she started blowing kisses to people...it was HILARIOUS! To top it all off, at the end of the ride she was trying to give the pony's back kisses. After that we started to think maybe her calling in life was to be a carnie that runs the pony rides. Wait...maybe not.



Anyway, after we got Peyton off here beloved pony we went to the petting zoo...another one of Peyton's favorite things. Thankfully this time there weren't any donkeys to chop her fingers (like our funfilled trip to the apple orchard/pumpkin patch last Halloween where a donkey mistakenly bit Peyton's finger...must have looked like a baby carrot or something - stupid color blind donkeys). She was really fascinated by these mini-deer things they had there. They were really tiny and very gentle, so we spent most of our time there feeding them...and Peyton of course had to try the food, too. She quickly found out it wasn't a "treat" for her. Ish.



Once we had our fill of the petting zoo we hit up the corn feed. Note-to-self...corn feed + 2 toddlers = not a good idea. Lets just say corn on the cob isn't the neatest of things to eat for us adults, so imagine being crammed in a gigantic tent with a million other people and trying to explain to a 3 year old that we have to sit in this little wobbly plastic chair so we can eat this big yellow thing that has corn growing out of it. We somehow managed to escape the chaotic corn tent and moved on to something a little more relaxing...the playground. The kids burned off any energy they may have had left going up and down the slide before we finally drug them off kicking and screaming to the car. Before we even got out of the parking lot Carson had crashed and Peyton only made it a few blocks further than Carson. I guess that means we had a good time, huh? : )