Tilden Park Petting Zoo

For our weekly play date (during the last week of February) with Lisa and Maddie, we decided to go to the Tilden Park Petting Zoo aka "Little Farm."  It is completely free for visitors although you can make donations if you'd like.  It's at the bottom of Tilden Park in Berkeley and is such a great little place for children.  It is not very big, but it introduces children to the basics of an animal farm.  There are cows, chickens, roosters, pigs, goats, and other animals that the children can feed and/or pet.  It's also nice because it is very rarely populated, so you get as much time with the animals as you'd like.  (Although right as we were leaving a fifth grade field trip showed up, reminding both Lisa and I how grateful we were to not be teaching anymore.)

It was pretty funny to watch Maddie and Daxton react to the different animals.  They were both very timid, but curious.  Daxton wouldn't take his eyes off of them, but had no interest in touching them.  Since Daxton isn't walking yet, he stayed in the baby carrier the whole time, which was great for looking at the bigger animals at eye level.

The four of us in front of the cows.
From L to R (Me, Daxton, Maddie, and Lisa)

While we were there some kids had brought lettuce to feed to the animals.  Maddie loved watching the cows and their long tongues.

Daxton's facial expression stayed exactly the same...confusion with a bit of concern.  I love how expressive those eyebrows are!

Making eye contact with the cows and goats...

I absolutely love Tilden Park and how beautiful all of the surrounding eucalyptus trees are.

Maddie is walking so well and loved going up and down the stairs. She also got a bit more brave with the animals and pet the goats for awhile.

Our last stop were the chickens and roosters.

Daxton loved watching them until the rooster called.  I tried to cover his ears in time since the call was so loud, but he was too frightened already.  Poor little guy!  It took him a few minutes to recover so we ended up leaving for our picnic after the chickens.

After our picnic, we walked around Tilden Park to a little wetland pond.  I loved the wooden boardwalk that led through the different vegetation.

I sure do love these two!

And it's pretty obvious that Daxton does too!

I'm so grateful that Lisa has moved to the bay area.  It's been so fun going on play dates with our little ones.  She's such an incredible friend and I love her so very much.
Thanks for another fun outing, Lisa!