Pumpkin Patching

Last weekend we made some stops at the local pumpkin patches.  The kids loved it.  This is the first year Claire is really old enough to enjoy it.  First we stopped at the Heritage House because they were giving away free pumpkins.  There's no pumpkin I like better than a free one.  It had rained quite a bit the night before and the pumpkins were all muddy.  There's very limited parking and it's hard to get in and out of there, but I guess that's the price you pay for free pumpkins.  Needless to say, I was ready to grab our pumpkins and leave.  It's futile really to try and get a round pumpkin at this place.  I'm pretty sure that since they're free, they're the rejects from all the other pumpkin patches around.  Mark was annoyed with me when we left because he said I had a bad attitude and I should learn to just relax and enjoy the experience.  Me?  A bad attitude?  I can't imagine.  But he probably had a point about just relaxing and enjoying the kids.  We did run into a old friend I hadn't seen in a while and her daughter and new baby so that was nice.  Here's some pics from the first stop.

They have matching goofy smiles.

Next, we headed over to Kleather's pumpkin patch right by our house.  We drive by this place every day on the way to preschool and the kids get so excited to watch as all the decorations go up in September.  Every day there are more and more pumpkins until finally you can hardly see grass.  Jack use to call this place "choo choo train pumpkins" when he was little because they have a large train around the outside.  We've called it that ever since.  Inside the train are chickens and rabbits.  I will never understand kids' fascination with small, stinky animals.

They always decorate with Wizard of Oz decorations and it's really pretty neat.  Last year, we discovered it's family owned and run by some friends we previously met through their preschool who also happen to go to the same church we do.  This family has two kids who are both in Jack and Claire's rooms at preschool.  When we got there, the kids got complementary popcorn--it's nice to have an in with the owners!  They were on cloud nine.  Sometimes, it takes very little to make something special. 

Jack pulled that wagon all over the place and he couldn't have been happier.

I never did get a decent smile out of them!