Annual Pumpkin Patch Trip

Last year when we visited the pumpkin patch, it was warm and sunny, but of course this year it was not.  We even said "no thank you" to the hay ride and corn maize, because we knew we just wouldn't make it in that wind!  But it was our day to go, so we bundled up and hit the road.

 

We know our way around that place, so we grabbed a wagon, stuck the two littlest in it, and hiked it out to the pumpkin patch.

 

 

We passed by the funny graveyard:

 

And 6 seconds after we got to the patch, Matthew had picked out his pumpkin.  That one turned out to be half frozen, so we put it back.  He then promptly picked out 13 more pumpkins, and we finally settled on the very perfect one.  It was quite a process.

 

The rest of the kids somehow have the idea that pumpkin picking is some sort of contest.  Each of them try to get the biggest one, and usually Dad wins.  My only rule is, if you can't carry it, it's too big -- put it back.  Needless to say, there was a lot of fumbling around, heaving and ho-ing, to prove that they could carry their gigantic pumpkins.

 

I told Haley that she looked like Hagrid in this picture:

 

Dad and Andrew are very picky about their pumpkins.  The other kids just want every single one they see, but it takes awhile for these two to make up their minds.  I'm pretty sure it's the same as parking -- they have to go around and scope out every single spot until they find just the right one.

 

This was one of Matt's picks.  I'm not sure if it's his final one or not:

 

Andrew made it to the wagon -- barely.

 

Joey was more sensible:

 

I think this was the third or fourth try for Matt:

 

***

 

After we had picked and paid for our pumpkins (and raided the farmer's candy dish), we stopped at the Batman cutout, just like we do every year.  Someday I'll make a collage of all these pictures from year to year:

 

I love seeing Matt's little bum sticking out.  He thought this was a very fun game:

 

And new this year, we stopped by the growing chart to mark our places.  Haley was really excited when I told her that she was covering the 5-foot mark.  That just made her day.

 

We bought 106 pounds of pumpkins.  We definitely don't need 106 pounds of pumpkins, but that's the way we roll!