Our First Family Outing!

I've always said, "I love a challenge!" But I really didn't have much to say when I found out that 5-year old Alexandra (Alex), broke her arm when another child pushed her off of a swingset.
Colin and I have sort of an adopted family that we take out swimming every week. There's 5-year old Alex, her 7-year old brother Steven, and their 10-year old friend Chantel. Stephen and Alex are blonde and mischevious, and Chantel's got a cute edge to her, as she helps mediate between the 2 siblings.
But anyway, my jaw dropped at the thought of poor Alex having a broken arm for possibly all summer. And of course our weekly outings to the YMCA pool have been put to a stop, because Alex can't get her cast wet. So this has given us the opportunity to think outside the box. What are some free activities that we can take them to, that don't involve water? After a bit of brainstorming my eyes lit up and I announced (to myself) "Happy Rolph's- we'll take the kids to Happy Rolph's!"
Happy Rolph's is an outdoor petting zoo in St.Catharines. The fact that it's free and open until dusk, makes it a great option a simple summer outing. They have pens with cows, horses, llamas, bunnies, guinea pigs, goats, pigs, etc. Happy Rolph's also has a park, a sheltered pond with swans and ducks in it, and a path along the shores of Lake Ontario. It couldn't be anymore perfect sounding- and I had a great time a year ago when I went there with some young families from my church.
But this time, as I naively divvied up my collection of end pieces (from my loaves of bread) to our kids, I forgot that our friendly critters at Happy Rolph's are just food driven animals, after all.
I was trying hard not to scream as a big, white goose over 4-feet tall, came at me with his beak wide open, and his tongue hanging out. I desperately threw the bread in my hands to Colin, as the big goose moved onto Alex, towering over her, and staring her down. Finally the big goose scurried over to Colin, and leaned up against Colin's leg like a dog, and his long beak pointed up towards the bread in his hands.Colin reminded me a lot of my dad in that moment, as my dad is also pretty fearless around the quirkiest petting zoo animals. But my sweet thoughts of my fiance were suddenly interrupted as a hungry duck grabbed onto my skirt with his beak. As I began to shriek more and the animals began to surround us a little bit more, the kids began to get scared of the animals as well. The geese and ducks were hissing and fighting for bread- and Colin and I decided that it was probably time to move on.
So after Steven, Alex, and Chantel harrassed a mother swan and her little chicks, Colin and I dragged them away to the path leading down to the pond. What a beautiful pond it was, where all of the birds were far,far,far away. This didn't hold anyone's attention too long, so we ventured off to the park.
There was nothing like swinging high on swings on a warm summer evening with the girls, or getting to watch Colin coax Steven out of a tree (while feeling tempted to climb, himself).
When we had first arrived at Happy Rolph's, I was a bit dissappointed when I realized that I hadn't brought any change with me to feed the animals. All along the animals pens there's machines that dispense pellets for 25 cents. But then I realized that feeding the ducks was quite the experience for the kids after all. And I also realized that the kids would want to come back again since they didn't really get to feed all of the animals this time.
As we headed back to Colin's car, we walked past all of the pens again to pet the animals and wash our hands at the hand washing station. And it was a beautiful thing as the kids voiced chimed "can we come back next week?" And Colin and I knew that we had a plan for at least another week. Other than that, we'll have to cross pools and splash pads off the list, as we get really creative. . .
And if you have any ideas, please let me know!