At the punchkin patch!

We haven't managed to go to a pumpkin patch in a few years (definitely not since before Eden was born), but this year I was determined to take my kids again! There is one near our house that has a kids' corn maze that we would go to, but before we could, we got an invitation to go to one with our cousin!!! That's way more fun!

We met my sis and bro in law (along with my niece), and mother in law after church and slowly made our way in. There was a haunted house in one of the buildings, but I'm not into purposely scaring myself (or being scared accidentally, really. I just don't like being scared period) so I stayed outside with Eden. I was impressed that all of the other kids wanted to go in, though. They seemed fine when they came out, so it must not have been too gruesome or creepy. (I did find out later that even though Rhys said it was "Cool!", he had his head down the whole time!!!)

After that we got onto the wagon for a hayride to the patch!  There was a tractor in the field for photos, which the kids had fun playing on.

 

 (B always makes goofy faces!)

 Let the search begin!!!

 

 

 

 Eden was so determined to pick up the pumpkin she wanted!  No matter how heavy it was! 

 That started a whole challenge for her and she wanted to pick up every pumpkin she could find. Then she had to add them all to our wagon. We had to take out 4 extras when she wasn't looking; it wasn't our intention to buy most of the patch up! She found a Spaghetti Squash that she called a Banana and added it too! (she put it inside one of the pots that tell you the price of the pumpkins. Ones that fit into a certain pot would be worth a certain amount. I don't remember what they were, though.)

After we found our pumpkins, we found that there was a hay maze too! I have always been nervous about mazes, even though they look cool and I would love to have one in my dream future estate garden, but the idea of being lost in one really makes me nervous, so I avoid those too! I was relieved (and felt a bit silly, really) when I realized the hay bales only went up about 5', so I could see over the tops even if the kids couldn't.  Oh, and they made this one easy! It wasn't as much of a maze as a pathway, with no winding wrong lanes to get lost down! Phew! The kids had fun running through it multiple times!

 

(look, I didn't get lost!)

There was also a goat pen, and usually goats amuse me, but these ones were stinky, so we didn't visit long! We had fun with the chicken coop, though. You could pay a quarter for a hand full of chicken feed, so we went through a lot of quarters! The kids had fun with that one!  There were a few holes where you could poke your hand through and feed them that way, or you could toss it into the fence. The kids were quite brave and tried to feed them by hand. Well, some did.  Abi had gloves on, so it wasn't too bad, but neither Kai nor I did. Chickens can peck pretty darn hard! I did it once but decided not to again! It startled me more than it hurt. Eden was nervous too, but with her gloves, I showed her how to hold her hand out still, but when the chicken was a bit too aggressive and started to take along her glove with the feed, it freaked her out a bit!  We just tossed our leftover feed together!

As we were leaving, one of the woman at the concession heard we were heading back to see the chickens first, so she handed us a pan full of pulled apart old hot dog buns for us to feed them with! That was a neat experience! I had never heard chickens make that noise before; it was like a coo instead of a cluck. Almost a purr. They were quite happy with the buns (I didn't know chickens ate bread!)  and we handed some out to the other children at the pens to give out too.

(nope, can't say I knew that)

It was a fun afternoon! The kids went on a hay ride, picked out pumpkins, went into a "haunted house", went through a hay maze, fed some chickens, got face painted (Abi did), ate lunch, posed for fun pictures, and made memories with their cousin and family! Yay for wonderful October days!!!

 (teehee, a gourd that looks like a duck!)