After a short night for me as usual, we got up at our regular time of 8 am to feed them breakfast. After cleaning them up, I picked out clothes for them to wear, as we were gonna take a trip. I've been wanting to take them to a petting zoo for a while, given how much they enjoy animals, and today was the day. I had asked Sonja to join us, as it's not easy with 3 kids, which we learned at the zoo, and she was so kind to come at 9 to come with us.
We left at 9:30 and walked a little bit to get to the bus stop. We only had one bus to take, going out of town, plus quite a bit of walking. It was amazing how rural it was out there. You would never think you're in Vienna. And it's still in the same district we now live in, which is the biggest district of Vienna, more than twice as big as the second-biggest district.
We had to wait quite a bit at the bus stop. I took Sammy out of the stroller and put him on his feet, which he enjoys, and it was really cute to watch his interaction with his brother. The bus finally came, taking us further out of town, and after some walking and wondering, we finally found the "Vienna Kids Farm", which is the actual name of it. We walked through the gate, and there were no people anywhere. We found signs that led us to a counter, where put the entry fee into a box and picked up a cup of animal feed. A group of handicapped people arrived to also visit the animals. We then ran into the owner, and learned from him that they are long time regular customers there.
Our first stop were the sheep and coats, including some babies. They came to the fence, and we fed them. Emmy has always been fearful, and he was the whole time we were there, scared of all the animals and not getting close to any of them. Tammy does not know fear and touched quite a few animals. Sammy was already tired, when we arrived, and he was crying most of the time, while Randy was holding him. I then took him and he rested on me, and I could tell he was falling asleep, so I put him him into the stroller, where he actually slept. He rarely sleeps in the stroller, but ended up sleeping in there for quite some time.
Tammy touched some sheep or goats and was fascinated by them. Sonja was holding Emmy, who was clinging to her. He did not want to get close to any animals. Then we walked on and saw some geese. And then the horse. And Tammy petted the horse, while I fed him some of the animal feed. The donkey was right too, and Tammy petted it as well.
Then we saw the cage full of rabbits plus one guinea pig. Tammy loves her rabbit at home. Now she got to see real ones for the very first time and was fascinated. I walked back to where the owner was to find out whether the kids could pet a rabbit. He gave me a long speech why that was not possible. Until he suddenly changed his mind. He got one rabbit out, sat down in a chair, and asked for anyone who wanted to come forward and pet him. The whole handicapped group was standing there, and a few of them came forward. Sammy was nearly asleep, Emmy was scared, and Tammy kept her distance at first, watching Daddy pet it, and then she did as well. Her first time!
We continued on and saw two pigs. Emmy liked them most of all. He is really good at imitating the sounds pigs make. The cows were right next to them. Again Emmy was scared, but Tammy petted the cow. She loved it!
We also saw a cat, but it kept walking away and I could not even get close to it. There was also a dog, but it walked away too.
After we had done our rounds, there was the playground, and that's what they enjoyed the most. Sammy was now asleep in the stroller, while Tammy and Emmy first went to the slides. There was a seesaw, which they had never been on before, and they did really well, when we put them on it. Good thing there are two of them! By the way, you can see that they are dressed really warm, but it was actually the first day of spring - sunshine and warm.
Then the little house got their attention. Tammy decided to go in through the window. Emmy joined her through the door. And then they started playing with the buckets and the sand, which was fun to see. They hadn't played in a sandbox before.
It was already rather late, so we needed to leave. They weren't too excited about that. We put them back into the strollers, and started walking to leave. Then the horse - with a rider - and a lady leading the donkey walked by. It took us a while to walk back to the bus station, but at least we didn't have to wait as long for the bus to arrive. We had been on the bus for a few bus stops, with few people in it, when the bus driver suddenly started cursing, saying that whoever on the bus was pushing the button before every stop should stop that immediately, as he was gonna be late if he had to stop everywhere. It was then that I saw that Tammy kept pushing the button as it was at her height, right next to the stroller. Randy moved her away so she could not reach it any more.
It was 12:30, when we arrived back home. I immediately turned the food warmer on, we undressed them and put them into their chairs, and started feeding them before the food was even really warm. They'd had some snacks, but not much, so they were hungry. I also warmed up some food for Sonja.
Tammy went to bed first and fell asleep fast. Emmy had actually slept in the stroller on the way home, and I was wondering whether he'd still sleep. He seemed tired, so I gave it a try. He was walking around playing, so I go thim back out and took him downstairs to Sonja. We were also wondering about Sammy, and gave it a try. He was crawling around talking, so he came back out as well, joining his brother downstairs. So both boys did not have much sleep today, just the short time in the stroller. The girl ended up sleeping a really long time, nearly until 4 pm, so nearly 3 hours.
I cleaned up and made myself someting to eat and went to bed to eat. I was really tired, not having been able to sleep in the morning, after my 5-hour night, so it did not take long before I got so tired I couldn't help it but sleep. I told Randy they needed to have their afternoon meal at 3, and then the boys could get another nap. Well, it seems that Randy also fell asleep, and when I woke up, when Tammy woke up, nobody had been fed, and the boys had not been put down for a nap. 4 pm was also rather late for their afternoon meal, but we all sat down at the dining room table to feed them anyway. No fruit or cookies added though.
Then we all went downstairs, where we played together. The boys were really fit, considering how little they had slept. Sammy was a little cranky, so I was throwing him around to keep him happy. Tammy came with books to read to her, and went both to Randy and to me. As I was leaving at 5 pm to make their food, Emmy and Tammy were jumping on the couch and having fun with Sonja, while Sammy was crossing the whole room from where I had been sitting to where Daddy was sitting. I've uploaded the video.
At 5:30 they came upstairs to eat. I had told Sonja she could leave any time, considering how early she had already come, but she stayed to the very end. What a blessing!
They ate most of their food at the table, and the rest in the bathtub. Randy then had to leave for an errand, so I was glad Sonja was still here, as we were getting them out of the water and ready for bed. The boys fell asleep fast, and the girl needed me to return for a few minutes, but then it did't take long for her to fall asleep. I then made my food, which took a while, and got to sit down and eat. Then I started working. Randy went to bed early, and it was after midnight before I started cleaning the kitchen and dining room. Now it's nearly 3 am, and I'm really tired, so I guess I'll be heading to bed instead of doing any more work.
