Today, we spent the morning at Oregon Dairy Family Farm Days. It was gorgeous weather for it, and I think everyone else thought today would be the best day too (considering there is rain in the forecast the rest of the week)! It was packed full of people.
Arrival and Tractor Ride
I usually try to get there in time for the first tractor ride at 10am, but by the time we arrived today, the tractors were already going at 9:45am!
The tractor and wagon ride was our first highlight of the morning. My two-year-old was thrilled he got to ‘ride’ a tractor. My four-year-old made the classic pinched nose face as soon as we turned the corner to the cow barn, and smelled that familiar manure odor! 🙂
We were greeted with smiles and scavenger hunt forms when we exited the wagon. The kids wanted to see the cows being milked first, so we headed that way. We usually skip that part.
Vendor Tent
I was highly impressed with the traffic flow this year. This is a very popular FREE event, very well attended, and it often gets chaotic with all the people and families. The first thing I noticed was they separated the milk/ice cream taste testing to a separate tent. This made the vendor tent much more manageable with plenty of room to walk from table to table.
My kids love the vendor tent, which I think is hysterical. Some of it is really geared more toward adults. BUT, they have some very unique activities for kids too. Our favorites included . . .
- taste testing deviled eggs
- taste testing yogurt and cheese (I must say this was delicious!)
- receiving a pumpkin seed packet and being told they could win $250 for growing it
- using playdough to make a light turn on
- blending feed in a bag for birds (or our new chickens!)
- spinning the prize wheel
- taste testing salsa and cranberry salad
- receiving a FREE bag of popcorn
The only thing they were really disappointed about, was that the talking robotic chicken was not there! I think it is normally at the Cherry Crest Adventure Farm table.
Animal Tent
On the way to the animal tent we saw the chickens. I don’t remember seeing that other years, but the kids loved looking at them this year.
The first thing we noticed at the animal tent was the beautiful brown cow. We then made our way to the hay mazes, baby chicks, goats, alpacas, sheep and corn table. My older two kids loved planting the sunflowers—and my favorite part was they give it to you in a baggie so I could easily transport it home.
After the animal tent we went to the area where we learned about dairy products, the food table, calcium and exercising. My kids loved the hoola hoops and free cheesesticks, however it was slightly more difficult here to keep them distracted from the pedal cars and barrel train which they really wanted to do! (It costs $2 to do each of those, and the line was pretty long.)
My two-year-old who is madly in love with tractors was so excited to sit on, climb on and look at the numerous tractors, combines, lawn mowers and so forth!
Playground & Lunch
As we were waiting for the tractor ride back to the playground, a crew member was handing out little business cards for a survey. If you take the survey, they email you a coupon for a FREE half gallon of chocolate milk!
There was a nice tent set up at the playground with several picnic tables to enjoy lunch at, or you could sit on the deck as well. The playground was full of kids, but things were working quite well. I noticed there was an Oregon Dairy employee monitoring the area, which I thought was helpful!
If you have not been to Oregon Dairy Farm Days in the past, or this year yet, I highly recommend it. My best advice is to go with a plan and a purpose—preferably to learn about dairy farms and products, agriculture, and the animals. Be intentional about what your kids learn while they are there!
To find out when the next Oregon Dairy Family Farm Days is, visit their website. It’s usually in the middle of June from Tuesday thru Thursday, 10am-7pm.
