Good Times At The Pumpkin Patch

So, I'm still catching up on the events of our weekend two weeks ago. There was a lot that happened in 48 hours. We had the mold discovery, the football game, my hair appointment, the plumber to fix the leak that started the mold and our visit to the farm. This will be the last post from that week - then I can finally move on to last weekend!

We (meaning Sean, Ethan, my sisters and I) made our annual pilgrimage to Lone Pine Farms in search of the 'perfect pumpkin'. I'll admit, Lone Pine has gotten very commerical over the years, but I still love it and it's a great tradition to share with Ethan. Highlights of our visit include:

* Feeding the goats and sheep. Ethan absolutely loved this. No hesitations at all. I think he really liked that the animals' faces were right at eye level with his. And it was neat for him to see and hear the animals in person because we have been working a lot on animal sounds - he's got cow, sheep, duck, dog, pig and horse down (that video will come later!)
* Sharing a bag of freshly made kettle corn. YUMMY!! Mmm... my family and I are all big fans of kettle corn and buy a bag whenever we have the opportunity to get it fresh.
* NOT paying for the hayride out to the pumpkin patch. We always grab a wheelbarrow and just walk out there. The rides are nice, but too expensive. Plus, I'm extremely allergic to horses, so we'd have to be sure to get one pulled by a tractor.
* Ethan picking out his own pumpkin and taking possession of it.
* Everyone else finding their 'perfect pumpkin'.
* Getting cute pumpkin pictures (sorry, Christi) of Ethan and a new fall family picture.
* Enjoying ice cream cones from a local dairy and getting some farm fresh produce.

Here's the pictures (and videos) from the day. There are a lot.

Our first stop was feeding the goats.





























This goat got a little over-anxious for his pellets and was a somewhat impatient with Ethan's one-pellet-at-a-time technique!

















Then, like I said, we didn't take the hayride out to the pumpkin patch. Besides, the horse dander from this one would have made me really sick. So, we walked.

First we went to the 'little' pumpkin patch. It was a lot closer and had lots of little pumpkins - just the right size for toddlers.

"I want that pumpkin over there."
















"Follow me!"
















"Here it is!"
















"Ok, I've got mine."
















Then we continued our quest for front porch pumpkins and walked out to the BIG pumpkin patch. We split up to search for our pumpkins.
Christine and I found this football shaped pumpkin.


















As usual, Elisabeth tried to take one that was too big for her. We stick with the rule 'you have to be able to carry your pumpkin'.

Here's Sean and I with all of the pumpkins.














Ethan thought he'd try to help.















And here's some more random pictures from the rest of the afternoon.

I know the family picture is already on our blog, but I figured I'd include it for journal purposes since I won't keep that header forever.
And... if you're really interested, he's another video from Ethan feeding the goats.