pumpkin patch

yesterday we were a little worried about weather, but the morning came without a cloud in sight!  the kids were out of school and my mops group arranged for a trip to a local pumpkin patch.  the pumpkin patch is so generous because they give large kids groups a discounted rate, add face painting and let all of the kids pick a pumpkin and two small gourds.  it makes for a very special trip. (we have been every year we have lived here.)

manning spent a lot of time in the stroller because it was fairly crowded (not too bad but a lot of school groups) but he was still ecstatic to be there!  the fire truck in this picture has actually been converted into a couple of slides and the kids LOVE it.  madelyn was in line for the zip line right next to the fire truck and mason and maddux were sliding over and over again.

there are a ton of cute things to take pictures with all over the farm while you wait for your turn to take the hay ride out to the pumpkin patch.  madelyn is posing with our friend ella from mops and church.

manning wasn't interested in the group picture, but i liked how he went back to pose on his own.  what you can't tell is he is saying "cheeeeeeee".

i think this is actually a teller window in the 'bank' but the kids told me that they were in "jail." 

there are a lot of animals to feed and pet too.  i literally had to remove manning from the pony.  he could have stayed there all day.  he kept trying to squat down low enough to look into the pony's mouth.

only madelyn and mason went into the petting farm part.  maddux isn't crazy about animals he can touch and the stroller was not going to be possible on the gravel paths.  our whole group was inside and two different families were keeping an eye on them for me.

not even half the kids in our group.

and now for the main event - pumpkins!  because it was such a nice day and schools were out, there were a lot of 'walk-ins' which made the hay rides a little behind schedule.  manning was starting to fade as we were heading out because it was getting very close to nap time.  this whole tractor was just our group - only one side is in the picture.

madelyn and ella

i asked madelyn to take one with me in it so that there wasn't a repeat of yesterday.

serious-faced manning (aka tired manning).

i hustled them back into our group's field so that i could get a picture without others in it but they just wanted to start picking their pumpkins.

manning couldn't get past the dirt on the pumpkins (which i just remembered someone else did that - mason i think).  he did like picking his gourds though.  i think he liked that they were more his size.

since i have been here with more that one kid before, i knew (and remembered) to bring grocery bags for each kid to help with the carrying.  if i had not, i would have had to carry four pumpkins and eight gourds!  super happy to have the bags, even when i ended up carrying all four and manning.

tired manning holding hands with mason on our ride back.

we had to cut out a little early because it was just going a little later than manning was going to be able to handle.  one of my friends had asked if she could take a picture of me and before we left, i took her up on her offer.  we were going to pose with something more picturesque but there was a wait at everything around us so i said we would just do it right where we were.  and then she pointed out the porta potties right behind us.  whatever.  i just wanted a picture with the crew.  and then someone else pointed out the man halfway into the porta potty.  that seems about right that i finally get into a picture and it would be less than ideal.  i still love it.

super fun morning.  we are tentatively going to go back with matt later with our bible study but we will see what the weather does.  of course, the kids have no idea.  i didn't tell them about today until we were on our way to maddux' swimming lesson.  there are just too many variables to us leaving the house.  love.