Pumpkin Patch

 

The minute rounded the bend, arriving at the farm, my husband groaned loudly and announced he wanted to leave immediately.  We had glimpsed three cars ahead of us, being directed by a staff-member into a field we had henceforth never parked in.  We had never parked in this lot because we had never been to this farm when it was busy....ever. We had also never had to wait in a line three cars long to wait to park...ever.  So, right away, my husband wanted to leave.  But my husband also loves me very much and knew me well enough enough to know that leaving at that point simply was not an option (not to mention the two excited kids and one teenager in the backseat).  Besides, we had already driven 40+ minutes to get there, so busy or not, we were staying to pick pumpkins. 

The first thing we did was see the haunted boo-barn.   Ryan was very impressed with the scenes of witches, ghosts and ghouls and no one was a bit scared.   Secondly, we looked at all the cute farm animals: calf, ducklings and pig.  Dylan finally met his hero and legend: Ole' McDonald. 

This place had an enormous pumpkin-head movie/nursery-rhyme display.  It was fun to challenge the kid (and teenager) to guess what characters were depicted.  

We gave them this one for free since they have never seen this movie.  Can you guess what movie this is from? 

From there we stood in an enormous line to hitch a ride up to the pumpkin patch.   We saw a few ghosts and ghouls and a few pilgrims and Indians along the way. 

Ryan was determined to pick the "BIGGEST PUMPKIN" ever.  Fearing that he would pick one that would be a HUGE pain to carry back to the wagon we added one stipulation--he had to be able to carry it himself.  He took his time.  Carefully, he searched far and wide through the field for the perfect one.   He finally came to us with this beauty: 

He carried that sucker back to the wagon ALL by HIMSELF.  Dylan, taking his cue from his big brother attempted to drag pumpkins as big as himself, but he broke his pumpkin's stem, making it a lot harder to drag.

It was so busy and so crowded that three wagons passed us by before we were able to get on one to take us back down to the festival.  That is an awfully long time for a little boy holding a heavy pumpkin.  It's a good thing big pumpkins also make good seats.

  After all that work, we were all a little hot and thirsty and hungry.  So, we treated the kids to some candy apples, kettle corn and a special soda.

Since it is a festival, there was no shortage of fun, over-stimulating things for young children to enjoy.  One of Ryan's favorite activities was a giant tube slide made extremely slippery by sitting on a burlap sack.

One of Dylan's favorite activities was using a water-pump to made rubber duck's swim.

We had brought my husband's sister Cassie with us, and I'm not sure what her favorite activity was, although if I had to take a guess, I would imagine it was the quality sibling bonding time with her brother.