A VISIT TO WHITE RIDGE FARM...

 One of the things we love when with our grandchildren is making our time together memorable and we enjoy getting out and doing things...  The children both had friends coming over for the day and we wanted to take them somewhere special so we decided to pay a visit to White Ridge Farm.  

The farm is located just a couple of minutes from Caboolture and it provides not only a fun farm experience but also an educational experience.  

As we had the extra children with us, it meant we had to take the two cars.  Sarah drove by Dan and Chloe's to pick us up and we took off around 9.15am.  It was a good hours run to the farm

Arriving at White Ridge Farm

Admission charges were quite reasonable... $12 each for children, $14.50 for Seniors and students and adults $19.50.  They also had a family rate of $59 which includes 2 adults and 2 children.  It was pretty good value and included use of all facilities for the day plus a bucket of feed to feed the animals...

The farm is situated in a lovely relaxed bush setting and where you can see the llamas, alpacas, horses and other beautiful animals.  We were able to hand feed all the animals as well as brush the goats and sheep along with patting the baby animals and chickens.  You could even milk a cow if you wanted it..

 

When we first arrived, it was Gypsy the camel that caught the kids attention.   We were told to hold our hands out flat when feeding Gypsy...  Her tongue was quite raspy on your hand as she licked up our feed..

From Gypsy, the boys noticed the tractor and wanted to have a bit of a play on it...

 From here the children wanted to go to the nursery to pet the baby animals.  On the way to the petting area we got to feed and pat some of the baby calves and goats...

 

  This was a great area. It's a lovely relaxed bush setting where you can pet, brush and feed the very well looked after animals. It's family friendly, with playgrounds, ride on toys, covered eating areas, etc. The staff are knowledgeable and friendly; and it's all affordable! Definitely  coming back and HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

This baby lamb was only 4 days old....

Both the girls just loved the bunnies.  Last time Willow and Max were here, they were able to nurse the bunnies.  Unfortunately they can no longer do this but are welcome to pat them.  I am not sure whether this is because we have come in school holidays and the place is busy and maybe too much for the animals or whether this is a new rule there now....

The boys loved the baby goats and lambs too and we were also allowed to give them a little pat.  There was a four day old lamb in the enclosure and he followed the Whiteridge staff member where ever she went...

They also had pigs and piglets, although we were not allowed to feed these with the food that we were given when we arrived.  In fact the pigs were the only animals we were not allowed to feed...

Willow patting the pigs..

 Max and his friend were fascinated with the chooks I must say I really loved the chooks at the farm also...  I have never seen so many beautiful chooks all in the one place... some were very fluffy and the colours were amazing... One even had a leopard pattern..

 

 

Gorgeous leopard print chook.... my favourite...

After leaving the baby animal enclosure, the girls wanted to go for a horse ride.  Max certainly didn't want to do this so whilst Steve took the girls to the horse riding, Sarah and I took the boys to see the lamas, alpacas and the Shetland pony...

Meanwhile, whilst we were with the boys, the girls were very excited to get to ride the horses.  This is the only activity at the farm that you have to pay extra for.  One lap of the oval was $6 and twice round was $8.  Both the girls were keen to do the two laps of the paddock..
 

By the time the girls had finished their horse ride it was well and truly lunch time.  Two little boys were complaining that their bellies were rumbling so we headed back to the picnic area to have our lunch.  The farm is well set up for families to bring their own lunch and enjoy a picnic on their premises.

The boys finished their lunch before the rest of us, so whilst we finished our lunch they played in the playground which was adjacent to the picnic area...

Whilst Max didn't want to ride a horse his friend Boston did, so Sarah decided to take Boston for his horse ride.  Max wasn't too happy about it because he was loosing his friend to play with.  This was a good teaching moment for Max to learn that just because he didn't want to do something it wasn't fair to expect that his friend couldn't do it because he didn't want to do it...

Steve and I waited in the picnic area so that we could keep an eye on Max and the girls whilst they played until Sarah came back...  We loved the farm car.... very colourful...

Once Sarah and Boston got back from the horse riding, the boys were keen to dig for dinosaurs.  The children's play area at the farm is relatively new, and their are dinosaur bones hidden in the sand.  The boys loved digging in the sand looking for the bones...

Max was really keen to go on a tractor ride, so whilst they played, us adults lined up for the tractor ride.  The line up was slow moving, as due to covid restrictions, they could only take one family group on the ride at a time, so the rides were being filled up.  There were several groups before us, so the children continued playing whilst we waited..

Max was super stoked to ride the tractor as he had been waiting to do this ever since we had arrived earlier this morning...

I had no idea of the treat we were in for on this tractor ride.  They drive you through the paddock and bush and point out all sorts of the things for the children to spy.  They were quite quirky and you really did to have a good imagination.  I think some of them were geared towards appealing to the adults...

We passed through the "T"Tree forest

and then through the forest of Umbrella trees.

The boys looking out to see what they can spot.

We came across a fairy garden

and then the bottle tree forest..

"T" Tree Forest

Close up of the Umbrella Tree forest

We spied birds

and then we spied Gnomes..

There were Australian animals

and lots of Bees and Bee hives..

We even came across a heap of Crocs in a field...

and a magical unicorm

There was even a swaggie camping out..

We even came across a heap of dinosaurs..

More Crocs to be seen

Spot all the fairies...

After our mystery ride on the tractor, it was time to have a few games of Putt Putt golf.  This was the last activity we were going to be able to fit in before closing time...

By the time we had finished our mini golf game there was only 10-15minutes until closing time, so we made our way back to the picnic area to collect our esky and bags before heading to the game.  We did however get a bit side tracked on the way out with us all stopping to have photos taken with camels, and tractors and anything else before we headed for the gate...

The children's picnic area is little a little something out of fairyland...

Max could not resist one last jump on the tractor and I was keen to say goodbye to the lamas and alpacas at the main entrance.  There was a very quite lama that caught my attention, he had a black face and the most beautiful eyes..

Then it was time to say goodbye...

and the children had one last jump on the truck at the entrance...

We didn't really have time for afternoon tea before we left so we decided to fuel up on the way home and stop at Macca's and buy them an ice-cream... Hopefully this will stop the tummy rumbles until they get home....  We were also heading back to Sarah's as the children wanted to come back to their Aunty Chloe's with us for a sleepover.  

We needed to pick up their clothes and bring them home with us after they had said their goodbyes to their friends.

Enjoying their ice-creams

It has been a really good day.  Normally Whiteridge Farm is open five days a week from Wednesday to Sunday from 9am to 3pm, but during school holidays, they are open everyday of the week. if you have young children and want to have a great day out with them, then I couldn't recommend a visit to Whiteridge Farm more highly.  The children loved the day and we will be back...