Ducks, donuts, and dirt

Today, Liesl and I went to the Parmenter Cider Mill with the Farmington Area Mom's Club. Up until now, Tom and I usually visited the Franklin Cider Mill every autumn, which is very near our house, but one look at Parmenter made me realize it is much more kid-friendly. For one thing, there is a large play area for very small children such as Liesl's age, full of equipment for climbing and sliding for toddlers. The cider itself is cold-process pasteurized, and while the cider mill obviously is near a river (with the requisite huge flock of ducks that is always present at every cider mill), it is far enough away from the play area that you don't have to worry about kidlets falling into the river.

Liesl had her first taste of cider and LOVED it! Truthfully more of it made it onto her clothes than in her mouth, but heck, that's why we own a washing machine. And she did have the better half of a donut, which was also very tasty. (Along with her own donut, Mommy, um, "helped" Liesl with the other half of her donut. We wouldn't want it to go to waste, would we?) The hungry, tame, Pavlov-donut-educated ducks were also a huge smash (see video below) and playing on tons of equipment with scads of other little kids was a huge success. We will definitely visit Parmenter (and the ducks) again this season.

<-- An evil plan is surely forming here....

Tormenting the Ducks at Parmenter Cider Mill

9-19-07