A Halloween-ish Fall-ish Week Without Paul.

Unfortunately Paul is working crazy hours this week, and we miss him terribly when he is not here, but we're still trying to have fun in this great weather and very fun time of year.

Wednesday me and Madeline went with our friends, Misty and Brooke, to a "pumpkin patch". I think it was mainly in the hopes that we could capture some perfectly photogenic moments of the girls in fall-type scenery, but also to possibly pick a pumpkin and go on a hayride.

We went to a place that Misty had heard about from a friend with great joy and excitement. It actually wasn't too far from where we live. A family farm. They grow pumpkins and Christmas trees, apparently. Anyway, when we arrived it looked promising. There was a cute little house on a huge plot of land with an area not to distant from the entrance where you could see piles of bright orange pumpkins lined up for sale near a decorated barn. They had colorful barrels tied together and hooked to a tractor of some sort for the "train ride" ($1 per child). And not too far away was a big wooden thing attached to a tractor with hay on it - presumably the hayride ($3 per family).

I let Madeline down to walk around - she was in heaven. She loves walking and being independent. Even more than that, she loves walking on grass... so this was a good time. I asked the lady about the hayride to the pumpkin patch. We waited a moment for a few more people to show up and then piled onto the hay. Here's where it gets kind of funny...

The hayride itself was probably only about 200 feet. When it began, we passed a Christmas tree field, which I thought was pretty neat. Misty seemed quite worried that the trees would not be ready or nice enough for Christmas time. I'm no tree expert so I didn't have much input on the matter.

So then all the sudden we come up to this field where all of these tiny little orange pumpkins are scattered everywhere. No foliage. No leaves. No pumpkin "PATCHES". So I say,

"Hey Misty. Wouldn't it be funny if THIS was the pumpkin patch." We laughed.


Two seconds later, the lady pulls around and stops. This WAS the pumpkin patch. We looked at each other like... What The ________!!

If this is a pumpkin patch then I should go buy some pumpkins and spread them out in my front yard and put signs up all over the neighborhood. I could put some hay in our wagon and give individual rides for $3.

So we got out, and Misty started gathering up pumpkins and placing them neatly around Brooke Olivia, who very obediently sat there and let her take lots and lots of pictures.


While I tried to do the same thing with Madeline (HA!).

Almost...

It didn't work too well, so I decided to just let her walk around and pick up pumpkins and get dirty... which she did very well. I couldn't get a smile out of her though.

She's so friggin' cute regardless...

So we took the hayride back to the front when we were done and paid the lady. I wanted to say something, but didn't. I was even so nice that I bought Madeline her little green pumpkin. It was a good time with our friends and a nice memory to look back on.


Probably won't be going back to that particular place for a pumpkin any time soon... OR a tree. Right Misty?