Chick-fil-a (A+ in my book)

My hat is off to Chick-fil-a.  For most of my life, I have just thought of them as a fast food place to get a good chicken sandwich, although at a premium price.  Lately, I have come to appreciate the company on a second level.  (you may know all this) Chick-fil-a is still a private, family owned company with Southern roots in Georgia.  The owners honor their Christian values by closing all their stores on Sunday to give their employees time to spend with their God and their families.  Publicly held companies can't get away with "traditional nonsense" like that.

Our local Chick-fil-a, up here in a DC suburb, has family night every Tuesday.  They already have a small "playplace" with tunnels and slides, but on Tuesdays they bring in some sort of family entertainment or event.  The only time I got off early enough to go, they had a folk/children's singer who involved the kids in the songs and let them play with instruments, etc.  

Last Tuesday, they had the Fairfax Fire Department out at the restaurant for a fire safety event.  They had one of the cows dressed up like a fireman and a firetruck outside for the kids to climb on/in and explore.  Joseph loved it.  The firecow came around to Jeni's table and interacted with Joseph.  A bit later, Jeni turned back to Joseph and he was gone!  After a brief moment of panic, she looked outside and saw that he'd followed the cow outside.  He got to get up in the fire truck and ask all sorts of questions.... mostly "how?"  There weren't many people there that early, so he had all the time he wanted.  One of the firemen asked Jeni how old he was and was surprised to learn that he's only 2 1/2, because of all the questions he asked.

Easter

We have our own little Easter tradition, since we've been living in town and don't have a legitimate yard.  We put the kids' Easter baskets out the night before and hide some eggs around the house so they can come down and search for what the Easter Bunny left.  You would have thought it was Christmas Eve Saturday night with all the excitement and all the questions about what the Easter Bunny might bring.  Jeni left an egg or two and a little chocolate bunny in each of their rooms when they were asleep and Sunday morning at 0700, Jannelle ran into our room, holding her bunny, and said "mommy, the Easter Bunny is gone!", meaning he has been and gone, so its OK to get up (much like Santa).

Staged Saturday Night

Looking high and low.

Joseph found his share

Sometimes the goodies hide in plain sight.

Janelle actually shared.  She peeled a chocolate bunny and offered it to Joseph and Jeni until I finally took it.

They've been big on giving puppet shows lately, so they each got a hand puppet.  Janelle got a rabbit...

and Joseph got a hedgehog.

After breakfast, or at least the time normally allotted for breakfast, I asked Janelle if she would like to do anything today.  She said she would like to go to "the farm".  When I asked Joseph, he said that he would also like to go to the farm.  We had originally planned to go to Reston Zoo because they were having free egg hunts with paid admission but since that would have cost around $50 and the kids don't get anymore out of it, we decided to do what the kids asked for and go to Frying Pan instead.  Plus, its free!

It's that time of year at Frying Pan/Kidwell Farms.  There were baby pigs, sheep, goats, cows, and chickens.  The kids were most interested in the baby pigs.

 

Piggies!

Piggies up close.

Piggies eating.

 Other fun things to do.

Cows are neat too!

and baby chickens

We've been there probably 20 times (remember, I said its free) and we've never seen this guy showing out like this before.

They have a lot of old farm equipment around there.

Some they use every day.  They also have some museum pieces of historical machinery.

 

But eventually you have to leave the farm....

... and go off to the playground. 

While the kids were playing, I noticed a map, posted on a sign I'd never noticed before, that showed the entire park.  It's much more than meets the eye.  There was a "nature trail" on the map that leads down to a "waterfall", so I convinced the kids to go on a hike to find the waterfall.  (again, words like hike and waterfall are in the eye of the beholder).

On the back 40, leaving civilization.

So much to see, and TALL trees.

and flowers to pick.

a little rest along the way.  Janelle wanted to take her flowers all the way to the waterfall, so she could put them in the water.

Gotta be careful and stay with Daddy.  There are a lot of thing to fall on here.

We finally found the waterfall!

Whew, that hiking really takes it out of you!  Let's take a rest before we go on to the car.

All in all, a really nice day.  We topped it off with a "picnic" at McDonald's on the outside tables.  The neat part is, the whole time, you could hear the jets roaring overhead either on takeoff or short approach to Dulles Airport.  Frying Pan Park is less than 5 miles from the runways.  Nature is where you find it.