Kinderboerderij en Ijsje

On Friday James and I had a walk with Lina and Maaike from next door. The weather in Enschede has been unbelievably beautiful over the last few days. Just gorgeous! We walked over to the kinderboerderij (a sort of petting zoo with farm animals in a nearby park). I hadn't bothered to take James before because I wasn't sure that he would really notice the animals. He really enjoyed it-- the goats were a little frisky (as goats can be), but except for accidentally realeasing one goat, no big problems arose. For the record: that goat was determined and really wanted to get out of the gate, and he didn't force him self out into the park, just into another area of the petting zoo. There was a calf, born just a month before James, but substantially bigger; lots of birds and rabbits (apparently people who change their minds about buying a bunny often slip their "pets" over the fence in the night-- the manager told us that one night 25 rabbits were slipped in that way) The manager picked up a guinea pig and let James pet it, which made him smile. I had heard from our friend Judith that this kinderboerderij featured an extremely fat pig, and she was right on the money. It was HUGE. Obscenely huge.
After our excursion Maaike treated us to an ice cream cone. James loved it, but was very disappointed when it was all gone.