Questing to Raise a Greener Family: Trip to the pumpkin patch

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Trip to the pumpkin patch

This Monday we finally made it to the pumpkin patch! Every year we go to Kingsway Pumpkin Farm. They have hayrides out to the pumpkin patch to pick your own pumpkin, animals to feed and pet, a barn with a cornbox (think sandbox filled with dried corn) and a hay bale maze. There's also a giant corn maze, but we've never done it since the kids are still pretty small. I wanted to go last Monday, I even invited two mom-friends and their kids, but things didn't work out. It's always so crazy there on the weekends and I thought a weekday would allow us to relax there a little more--and not wait in line for the hayride to the pumpkin field for half an hour. So since the big kids didn't have school again this Monday I thought we'd go.
We picked Nana up after Vince's swim class (he passed to the next level!) and rushed up there to make the 12:30 departure of the hayride. We JUST made it, but lots of other people must have had the same idea as me since the wagon was FILLED! Luckily, they agreed to do another ride after the first, which allowed us to check out the animals in the petting zoo, hang out in the barn with the cornbox and maze and play outside. As we got on the wagon, it started to drizzle, so THAT was fun, but the kids had a great time squishing through the mud in the field to find "The Perfect Pumpkin" as Ellie called it. Her's really IS perfect! It's the cutest little round thing it looks like it belongs in a Halloween special! Caden made a friend, some little girl he met in the hay bale maze, and paled around her her out in the field and on the wagon.

It was a much different experience this year than in the past, both because it wasn't packed with people, but also because the kids are getting so much older. They've been going there for years, so things that used to be fun and exciting aren't so new and exciting anymore. Caden's outgrown the train that he used to love so much. Little Olivia slept in her sling the entire time. I'm afraid that by the time she's ready to really enjoy the pumpkin patch, Caden and Ellie will be over it. It's hard with 4 to make sure that each one gets the same experiences that the older ones did. I know that I've done a lot less with Ellie and Vince than I did with Caden, even though I'm making a conscious effort to try to make sure it doesn't happen. I guess that's just the way things go. I'm sure that she'll have different kinds of experiences than the older kids had when they were young, simply because she DOES have older brothers and a sister.

Even though the weather was gross, it was still fun and I'm glad we went (sounds EXACTLY like what I said about the apple orchard...I can really pick days with fantastic weather for family outdoor activities!!). The kids are excited to carve their pumpkins and I'm thinking about running back out to the farm to get a few more to decorate. The kids were just getting too DONE when we were paying last time, plus the rain had started to really fall so I didn't mess with getting decoration pumpkins. They had some HUGE ones there that I thought might be fun to get for the front step. Plus some gourds and indian corn for the Thanksgiving mantle...*sigh* I LOVE fall!!!