Hay Maze and other fun

Despite standing in line for two hours today to get the girls the H1N1 vaccine, and the two and a half hour nap that followed, we still had time today to go out to the maze. We had a great time - it finally feels like fall weather, where you can just wear a fleece and feel snuggly. And even if we don't have fun-colored leaves, we're determined to have fall regardless!

So at the maze, there was a petting zoo. The girls had decided they wanted to pet a chicken (sadly, there wasn't one) but they soon turned their favor to the rabbits, which decidedly did NOT favor them back. There was one boy who seemed to act as the rabbit-wrangler, and he helped the girls get some pets in:

Elena, wondering why this sweet rabbit doesn't want a pet from her or Soft Dog. What the goat is doing in the feeding trough we are not exactly sure...

Both Steve and Christina tried their hand at getting the rabbits to want to interact with the girls, but we mostly just got them to sit still for a few seconds a a time.

The girls love horses/ponies/"neighs" in their books, but in person they weren't quite as excited. Elena got up the guts to go have Soft Dog pet the pony, but Clara was pretty frightened, especially when the pony came and "neighed" behind her. She talked about that the rest of the night, but seemed to recover okay.

There was a big hay maze (you can kind of see it way behind us here) but that nearly gave us (especially Christina) a heart attack when the girls started running through it willy-nilly. You really can't see how to get out or where someone has gone once they are a few feet ahead of you. Luckily, the girls turned themselves around and ran out pretty early, and we went to a kids version:

Elena figured out a cheat/innovation very early on and just jumped up and over the hay bales to get where she wanted to go. Clara, being just a bit shorter, had a harder time getting up, so she mostly walked/ran through it along the pathways.

Eyes closed, but Elena very proud of herself there in the middle of the maze:

Victory for Clara, who made it out of the maze almost on her own!

The other really fun aspect to this maze was the included playground. It was so much fun for them to swing and slide and climb, since it's been a bit cold lately to go to a playground. We found out that Elena knows how to grab a rope and swing out on it, feet completely off the ground.

Next up, one of our last slow weeks at home before a very busy two months of visits, travel, finals, and holidays. We can't wait!