Boys And Pumpkins

This year we decided to carve our pumpkins rather than do our usual pumpkin painting.  It was pretty fun.  First I cut and cleaned them out, then I let Dave get to work on his own while I sat down with the boys and had them both tell me exactly what they wanted their pumpkins to look like.  It worked out great, and I got a lot of yummy pumpkin seeds to roast since I opened 4 pumpkins instead of only 2!

 

 

Playdate With Pumpkins

While Jack was in school, Sam and I headed to Tanaka Farms (our usual pumpkin patch destination) to meet up with some friends.  It was really weird to be there without Jack and I missed him a lot, but at the same time it was nice to spend time with just my Sammy.  It was relaxing to be able to focus on him and not constantly be looking two directions at once so that I didn't miss anything- I can't ever stand to miss anything when it comes to my boys!

Our first stop was veggie picking.  The kids had a great time at this one!  It was really fun watching them find the veggies... they were so proud of themselves!  (Sam's hair looks weird, I know... he had just had a haircut  that ended up being too short and I tried to gel it so it wouldn't fall in his eyes, which it tends to do, but it didn't really work out)



Then we went to look at the pumpkins.  Sam wanted a huge one, but my rule was that he had to be able to carry it himself.  He ended up finding a great one!  When we found the pile o' pumpkins we let them climb and then tried to get a picture of all the kids together, but that didn't end up going so well... which didn't really surprise us ;)

 
 
 
 
 
 

After picking our pumpkins and veggies we hopped on the tractor'r trailer to head over to the petting zoo!  I was excited for this because Sam loves animals and I knew he would be thrilled to hang out with the animals.  I was right!  He was so excited, and it was so sweet to watch him with the animals.  I couldn't get enough of watching him pet and talk to the animals... he was in animal lover heaven!  It was so cute how he would get down on their level to look in their faces or just stand there with his arms around a goat, and every now and then he would look up at me with a shy smile like "Mom, can you believe this?! I'm playing with the animals!"  I give you fair warning... I had no filter when choosing pictures of Sam in the petting zoo.  I loved them all, so I'm sharing a ton ;) 

 

 

 

 

 

This one is my favorite

Of course, our friends were with us in the petting zoo too!  We all had a great time (well, McKenna was acting afraid of the animals, but I did see her smiling at times so I know she had a good time, too)!

 

 

After the petting zoo we let the kids climb on the play tractor trailer before hopping on the real one to get us back to the other side of the patch

 

I had coordinated with my mom to pick Jack up from school for me so that I didn't have to rush back to get him, so we were able to enjoy a picnic lunch (in the back of my car) with our friends!  The boys thought it was pretty cool to eat in the back of my car, and after lunch we headed to the Corn Maze for an adventure.  The boys were very excited for the Corn Maze and in order to avoid losing them in their exuberance I came up with a game... they could run until they got to a fork in the road, and then at each fork they would wait for everyone to catch up and then take turns choosing which way we would all go.  They were really excited when we made it to the center of the maze, and the game made them even more enthusiastic when it was time to leave the maze, as we played it again on the way out.

 

 

 

 

Then we quickly let the kids run through the hay maze before heading home.
 

We had such a great time with our friends!