The Cutest Pumpkins In The Patch

Last night we visited our favorite pumpkin patch. It gets a little better every year, although it is quite commercialized these days. It gets extra points for entertainment, but not so many for "down on the farm" feel. Seems how we know what a farm is really like, and we have two small children, we are happy to go with "commercialized".
This year there was the addition of a bounce house. If that doesn't get your preschool/toddler crowd excited, you have many other options, but this was our first stop. We stayed for awhile while the boys got sweaty and #1 and I got wind blown. We were, after all, standing in a big field with nothing but the bounce house to stop the gusts. Although it made it to nearly 70 deg yesterday, the wind really kept things chill.

Every year the hay straw statue gets a little bigger. This year he was a huge scarecrow. I didn't post a picture of whatever it was last year, but looking back it is SO strange to see how small the kids were. Click here to check out last year's trip.

It is getting harder and harder to capture pictures of the boys, together, with both boys looking and smiling. This one will be a keeper.

Instead of crying the entire trip (see last year's post), Baby J very much enjoyed our outing. A lady from the church I grew up in made him his adorable pumpkin hat. I LOVE it. (He doesn't especially).

After about twenty tries, I got Snug to look, smile, keep his tongue in, and sit still for a shot in the patch. Whew.

This is a yearly tradition. We have a picture of him as a little baby, about 2 months old, in the bottom hole.

Dropping rocks into the bucket was probably right up there on Baby J's list of favorite activities for the afternoon...but there were so many favorites to choose from. Was it the bounce house? Maybe picking a pumpkin? Or...

...the petting farm! There is a petting farm at The Pumpkin Barn complete with goats, Llamas, a horse, a donkey, several pigs, turkeys, and chickens.

Really it would be hard to pick a favorite if I was them. But I'm not, and my favorite part of going to The Pumpkin Barn is...

...THE HAY STRAW PIT! I love getting in there with the kids and playing! My (from a real farm) husband informs me all about my lack of farminess. It is not hay, it is straw.

I do not however jump off the bales into the heaps of soft loose straw.

But it was one of Snug's favorite activities. He did it over and over and over. I thought it was a great activity to perhaps persuade his body to sleep in a bit this morning, but that didn't happen.

So until next year, I have these pictures to look at and remember our trip...and next year we'll be taking three :o)

*By the way, for those of you who live in SW Ohio...every activity you have seen pictured was FREE! We payed $2.50 for a pumpkin, and didn't do the (not free) "hay" ride. But the bounce house, straw pit, petting farm, and pumpkin browsing were at no cost to us.