4-21-14

Day 1 of our trip to Illinois, we enjoyed part of our stay at Lambs Farm in Libertyville.  My last visit there was at the tender age of 6 in 1972, so it was time for another visit! The Lambs Farm is a special place for the developmentally disabled to live and lead fulfilling and productive lives. Two hundred and fifty residents call Lambs Farm home. This history of Lambs Farm began in 1961 with the opening of a pet shop on State Street in Chicago.  In 1965, the organization moved to Libertyville to land bought and donated by philanthropist W. Clement Stone, 70 acres worth!  The large barn was restored and became the largest pet store in the area and a whole community for the developmentally disabled was built around it. The farm now has many businesses that serve the Libertyville community, including of course the pet shop, the Magnolia Cafe, a thrift shop, also a bakery and a fun farmyard.  It was great coming back after about 41 years.

Our first stop was the Visitors Center where they had a great display showcasing the Lambs Farm history timeline.

 

The Cedar Chest Thrift Store is full of delightful items, great gift ideas!

 

 

The next place we went to was the Sugar Maple Country Store.  We bought some delicious fudge and saw many great gift ideas, food and otherwise.  Consider buying from Lambs Farm to support their community. Catalog is available here.

 

 

It was time for lunch!  We ate at their on-site restaurant, The Magnolia Cafe and Bakery.  Lunch was delicious and we were full all afternoon.

 

Outside was a beautiful gazebo  dedicated to former Chairman Miriam Portegys.

We then headed off to the Barnyard to see the animals.

 

The “pig in a blanket” was just adorable.   They have happy, well-cared for animals there.   We couldn’t resist a picture with Paul Bunyan and his ox 🙂

Lambs Farm also has a train ride, leaving from the farm-yard and goes by the lake there. The train went right by when I was in the farm-yard.

 

Well, that concludes our visit to Lambs Farm.  We plan on continuing our support of this worthy organization in the future. It was fun to revisit a place I went to in childhood also.

 

Related Sites

* Lambs Farm

* Visit Lake County