Family Pumpkin Patch Day

As you may have already read, Alton and I went to a pumpkin patch on a playgroup outing in the middle of the week. By that weekend, the weather was still clear, sunny, and even warm, so we decided it was the perfect Saturday to head back over to the pumpkin patch with Daddy and avail ourselves of some of the weekend-only activities and even more pumpkins!

First stop: the train ride, of course!

This large pumpkin patch has a barn area where you purchase your pumpkins, tickets, and other sundries, but to walk to the other side of the property to start picking through the pumpkin patch is quite a trek, so they have a train ride and boat ride to shuttle you out there and save you from walking the round trip. You can take the train out to the patch and boat back to the barn, or vice versa if you like!

Out at the patch, they provide wheelbarrows for you to push amongst the vines and ferry your choices over to the modes of transportation.

Alton checked out the ponies that were doing the pony rides, but wasn't quite ready to don the riding helmet and hop on. Instead, he scrambled to the top of the haybales!

Fun!

They even had a small hay maze for him to run around in, and we encountered one of his little playgroup friends while we were twisting and turning.

Then it was pumpkin-picking time.

Alton focuses on grabbing another baby pumpkin or two.

Or eating them, in some cases. Mmm.

Daddy grabbed a wheelbarrow and headed for one of the behemoth pumpkins, then wheeled it onto the boat for our ride back to the barn.

Their big reservoir has been equipped with some sights, like a pirate ship, sea monsters, a fisherman, and a shark!

Back on dry land, we saw the face-painting table! Alton had never done this before and expressed an interest, so I showed him their poster board full of sample designs, and told him to choose one for them to paint on his face.

He picked the boat, of course!

Alton and his boat!

On our way out to the parking lot, we saw the "caterpillar rides," and Alton flagged down the driver with some ones.

This is a long train of black and orange plastic barrels that have been modified to have seats in them for children, pulled by a tractor. Alton may look stricken in this picture, but he was stoked to ride the caterpillar! He was in total awe of the tractor up front.

And off they go around the vegetable patch!

Heading back up the driveway, waving to Mommy and Daddy.

Waving to the little guy in front of him.

What a fun morning! Time to head over to Daddy's truck and drive home with that gigantic pumpkin I mentioned. Whew! That was close!