The Pumpkin Patch

How was your weekend? Good, I hope. Ours was mostly spent being lazy, napping, watching Toy Story 3, and blowing our noses... a lot. That's right, Audrey was a sweetheart and shared her cold with me. And although I do remember telling Bryce at one point that I was seriously dying, the worst seems to have passed and we were able to pull ourselves together enough to go to the pumpkin patch on Sunday with my in-laws.

I'm pretty sure that once your kid can walk the pumpkin patch is some sort of requirement, you know, something you are supposed to do. Similar to a visit from the Tooth Fairy when a tooth falls out, an Easter basket from the Easter Bunny, and sitting on Santa's lap (I'm still trying to gear up for that one, something about the long mall lines and the somewhat creepy Santa freak me out a little). I'm also fairly certain Audrey won't remember this trip to the pumpkin patch, but she did have fun, so in my opinion it was totally worth it.

Can you guess what was the best part about the pumpkin patch? I'll give you a hint, it had nothing to do with pumpkins. It was the animals. There was any type of farm animal you could want and much to Audrey's delight there was a whole pen with baby goats and a sheep that you could pet and run around with. She was absolutely beside herself. Please ignore the blurry pictures, she was moving fast!

Aww, look at that sweaty little head... poor girl, she gets it from her dad.

Of course there were also pumpkins. We found a whole "patch" with pumpkins just Audrey's size.
Now if I can be a bit cynical for a moment... when did pumpkin patches stop being actual fields of pumpkins? This is what I remember from being a kid, you go to a farm, walk a really long way out to a super muddy field full of pumpkins, find the one you want, cut it off the vine and carry it all the way back to the car and if you couldn't carry it you couldn't have it. Isn't that how a pumpkin patch is supposed to work? I'm not the grinch or anything, but when did everything become so commercial. To me the best part is that this farm doesn't even grow pumpkins, they have them shipped in just like a grocery store does. We are going to have a whole generation of kids that think pumpkins magically appear on beautifully mowed lawns each October. When Audrey is old enough to actually remember going to the pumpkin patch you better believe we are finding one where the pumpkins are still on the vine. Ok, enough said, cynicism over. 

I asked my mother-in-law to take a picture of Audrey and me to prove I was there. Twelves picture later and I'm still not sure we got a keeper. I'll let you be the judge.

 All in all it was a great day at the pumpkin patch!