World of Difference #3: Lambs Farm & Goat Yoga

Any age kids will enjoy Lambs Farm and your purchases will help a good cause.  Located in Libertyville, IL, Lambs Farm provides vocational and residential services for over 250 adults with developmental disabilities.  Founded in 1961, it already became the third most frequented visitor site in Lake County by the 1980s.  That's probably because of the good cause combined with family fun.  The site includes a petting zoo, small rides, and mini golf course perfect for the little kids.  The farm does include many animals including lambs, but that's not the origin of the farm name.  The name has religious meaning from John 21:15 in which Jesus tells St. Peter, "Feed my Lambs".

As a big kid, I find other ways to support this worthy cause.  I buy ice cream topping at the Sugar Maple Country Store, dog accessories at the Dogwood Pet Shop, donate to the Cedar Crest Thrift Shop, and enjoy lunch at the Magnolia Cafe & Bakery restaurant.  Yes, that's a lot of sites in one place.  It also has a greenhouse and store.  It's a 72 acre campus which also includes their housing.  Those living onsite are also the employees.  They have purpose and pride in their work and it shows.  I enjoy that I can visit with the same people weekend after weekend and see their smiles.

Lambs Farm also raises funds through events such as a golf outing.  I wanted to share my experience at a new event - Goat Yoga.  The instructor utilizes the Lambs Farm petting zoo location and class funds go to a good cause.  As a first time Goat Yoga participant, I was a little concerned that I've mastered no yoga pose.  No problem!  Our instructor made us all at ease, letting us know to have fun, play with the animals, and go ahead and laugh, it's all part of total wellness.  We all laughed at some point, usually when a goat tried to eat our yoga mat or get close to our face.  The Lambs Farm employees added more animals to the mix.  It was so fun to watch the young kids giggle.  According to the new brochures, Lambs Farm also added Puppy Yoga.  There's always something new at Lambs Farm.  

Check the Lambs Farm website for event schedule.  Take your whole family for the fun and support a great cause.  Who wouldn't want to hug a goat and give to a good cause?

If you are looking for more information about yoga, click on my article "Gym Class Little Yogis and 3 Yoga Festivals".

Mom Blooper: Goat & Grant's Farm

It's time out for another "Mom Blooper".  Travel can lead you to so many adventures, including unexpected ones.  People always joke about the ultimate excuse "the dog ate my homework."  Somehow family travel led me to claiming "the goat ate my daughter's snow cone ticket."

It all starts with a casual family outing to Grant's Farm, a family friendly attraction in St. Louis, MO.  It's a great deal - free admission to the park, free tram ride to tour the deer park, a beer garden with free tastings, and free animal shows.  The Busch family, the family who owned the Anheuser-Busch company, owns 281 acre Grant's Farm.  You can see the famous Clydesdale horses and carriage houses even without the $25 Clydesdale Experience Tour.  The park offers a 1.5 hour estate grounds tour "Estate Tour" for $25, but you can spend much longer just walking the grounds and seeing animals.

In this wonderful land of free fun, there's an opportunity to buy a bundled "fun pass" for only $6.  Here's the beginning of "the goat ate my daughter's snow cone ticket" claim.  The pass includes one carousel ride, two goat feeding bottles, and one snow cone.  Who could pass up such a combination?

My daughter entered the goat feeding area with two bottles and her remaining snow cone ticket.  The goats surrounded her.  I don't think she expected goats trying to eat her skirt while trying to feed another goat.  The snow cone ticket got too close to a goat mouth and we watched in terror as the goat quickly snatched it, chewed it, and swallowed it.  My daughter exclaimed "no one's going to believe that the goat ate my snow cone ticket!"  It's a hot day.  Her cousins and brother still own snow cone tickets.  You know it, mom must approach the window to explain to the compassionate employees the entire ordeal.  The employees didn't seem to phased by the story and gave us a snow cone ticket. Perhaps I should have paid more attention to the "goats can be aggressive" sign, but we had a fun time overall.