It has been a few years since I have been to the Pumpkin Patch.  I used to go with all of the younger kids when they went on a field trip with their daycares.  But it is has been about 3 years. 

Since this weekend was going to be a total bust for the kids with me trying to study, I told they yesterday that if they were good for the babysitter today that I would take them when I got home in the afternoon.  It turned out to be a gorgeous day and after studying for about 5 hours and hitting the wall, I got home.  My wonderful babysitter had put the girls down for a nap and that meant I could sit and relax for a few minutes before going out again.

We drove to this farm which is in Ashland behind our house and is only about 10 minutes away.  Once we got there, Addison was very excited because her class had come there a few weeks ago and she had gotten a pumpkin which she dropped and broke and so we had to throw it away.  But, she got to be the big authority of what they had to do there!

We waited in line for a tractor to take us to the fields for about 15 minutes.  But, there was so much to look at that most of the kids were good and I didn’t have to yell once!  The tractor ride was short to the back of the farm and the most exciting thing was that the bottom stair was broken and all of the kids had to ask the driver why his step was broken. 

As we were driving up to the “patch”, I saw in the distance another tractor with boxes of pumpkins and a bunch of workers who were throwing pumpkins into the patch – replenishing it!  Ha!  Luckily none of the kids noticed as they were looking at cows and chickens and horses along the way. 

It took no time at all to find our pumpkins (since they were so nicely already cut from the vines and lined up along the patch!).  We went back and paid and put them into the car and then went to the haybale maze (pronounced Lame by the two boys – though Logan liked it and went back a couple times).  They had a set up with 4-5 old water pumps which pumped water into a pipe and you pushed a rubber ducky down the pipe to the other side – that was a hit! and then they had two big “sand” boxes filled with corn kernals.  Matthew jumped right in but his sensory stuff got the better of him and he just sat there and said…they’re sharp! – (I agreed, can’t imagine crawling around in that stuff but the other kids seemed to like it). 

Last but not least, Logan and Addison climbed on the big hay bale (complete with 8 black rubber tube legs to make it look like a giant spider!). 

All in all, a good outing – no one got lost, no one got hurt and 5/5 of us had a good time.  (oh yeah, don’t get me started about the big giant slingshot that Riley spent 10 minutes shooting rocks into the field next door with!).  He definitely is all boy!

Categories: Family, Mothering 4