Pumpkin patch

Autumn is here, my favorite season! :)

The kids (Zephyr, Jubi, Grady & Ainslie ) and I are prepping to do a pumpkin/turkey craft this morning. Handling the plump, blazing orange pumpkins made me think of the day the family ventured out to the local pumpkin patch and maize maze last month and chose the pumpkins. We are fortunate to have this fun Fall venue right down the road from us, literally moments away.

Honestly, I'm not that big of a fan of the maze aspect. Where we live, even late October is frequently sunny and hot. And being somewhat directionally challenged, I'll admit to having never actually reached the end of the maze.

So, we've developed a routine of playing on the carts, tractors, the tricycle races, the tractor tire mountain, etc. Our main destination is always the big PVC plastic slides. And we always end up by choosing pumpkins to take home.

Conquering Tractor Tire Mountain. They vehemently refused to face the sun for me so we ended up with a dark picture.

Regretfully, I didn't catch a shot of it but this year Ainslie discovered the big slides for real, as in, she did them over and over and over and over and over all by herself (and with her best bud Jubi whom we had bumped into). No more lap sitting for Ainslie. :) Jubi and Ainslie perfected the art of sailing through massively long lines and crowded waits by just being small and scooting right on through.

Grady's moving pretty fast.

Lenny did manage to capture this shot of Grady and I. Grady, jealous that I was pulling ahead in what I didn't even realize was a race, grabbed hold. What he grabbed onto, with a iron grip, hurt like heck, thus my expression.


Something new and very fun this year was riding the pedal, go-carts around a track. Grady went around the junior track so many times I was tired just watching. He really enjoyed barreling around the curves, tilted to the side, making screeching sounds. Fionna was tall enough to ride a larger pedal cart on the main course, and Ainslie joined in on that one while riding on Lenny's lap.

All in all, another great day at the local pumpkin patch. I'm thankful for the fun, the friends, the memories and the pumpkins. We've done jack-o-lanterns (bad mom didn't get any pictures of those), strewn them around the front yard as decorations, and now we're onto turkey crafting. Stay tuned for those pictures (hopefully).