A Friday Field Trip: Fritz Park and Petting Farm

Our field trip is to Fritz Park and Petting Farm in Irving, TX. It's a bit of haul from Dallas, but the boys were up for it.

But, first, they had to get hair cuts.  Their haircut prizes were these sticky hands on wands. Delightful. William was totally disgusted with the sticky hand (and the stuff that stuck to it...blerg...) but he enjoyed the stick after I took the hand off of it.

So, we headed out. We had packed a picnic (as usual, cheapy mom), and went to the petting farm part, first.

Did I mention the petting farm is free? it's staffed by young teen-aged volunteers, some with not-quite-developed social skills, but kind and helpful nonetheless.

As we approached this calf, my kids said "omg, look at that pig" ***sigh***

and, we had a conversation about what the difference is between turkey for sandwiches  and this turkey. (the answer is: the one for sandwiches is sliced thinner)

goats. You can go in and pet the goats. You can also pet a rabbit and a chicken, but the boy in charge of rabbits and goats had social skill issues, and was distracting me from my photography (which requires ALL of my concentration) with his not-very-interesting monologue about the names of all the goats and sheep.

he didn't follow us to the donkey, but he had ruined my picture taking for a few moments. I pointed out the various dark markings on this donkey, including the one on his back. The kid in charge, behind Aldous, said "That's actually a cross on his back". Um, no it's not. It's dark colored fur.  It **looks** like a cross, but it's not "actually a cross". However, I  didn't acknowledge her comment and went back to pointing out the stripes on the fur near the hooves, etc. This little guy was SO friendly! There was also a pony, but he didn't see as interested in being petted.

This is actually a peacock, not colored fur in the shape of a peacock.

After our education trip to the petting farm, we headed to the play ground. It's not that far away, but we drove.

There are millions of picnic tables, all in the shade, in a nice grove of trees.

The boys played a rousing game of  "Ring-Around-The-Rosy" while I unpacked our lunches.

I got a great pic of the park area on our walk back from the bathroom. There IS a bathroom, but it's rudimentary jail-cell style.

There was a small group of day care kids when we got there, but they were gone within 30 minutes and we had the place all to ourselves. The boys played a lot in the water fountain.

William loves to play in the water, but hates wet clothes. Kind of a problem, if you ask me.

We had a great time, even tho it was 400 degrees! To be honest, there was a slight breeze and it was comfortable enough in the shade. I actually got to read my book while they played.  It was a beautiful trip, and we had a great time!

The petting farm is only open in June and July, but the rest of the park is so nice it's worth the occasional trip to enjoy.