"Old Mr Oakvale had a farm..."

Oliver has a nice group of friends now, and along with them, some lovely mums and dads that we've got to know. Most of the time (ie during the week) it's Annemarie who gets to see them, but early today it was a 'Dads day' event for Gabe.

He went with Oliver, O's friend Quintin, and his dad Boris to Oakvale Farm - a Hunter Valley attraction packed with cute animals.

The first area is a large open shed, where we all (30 or so family groups) gathered with our little ones. We were all handed milk bottles, then...  without warning...  they open gates and we're swarmed by lambs and kids (as in baby goats).

A few of the (human) kids understandably freak out - you'd think a tourist attraction that's been doing this thing for years would know better. But alas - common sense is not common.  Anyway, we emptied our milk bottles and moved on to larger animals.

(It's very cute, ever since the photo below was taken, whenever Oliver sees a cow in a picture book, he insists on patting it.)

Some of the other highlights of the trip included feeding food pellets to kangaroos, seeing joeys up close, and riding on a scenic tractor/train.  Oh, and patting the koalas of course!

If anything, at 15 months Ollie was a bit young for Oakvale farm.  18 months + is probably more appropriate. And as you'll see in later posts, he's found more koalas, closer to home....