We have been blessed with gorgeous weather for about a week, leading up to this perfect day for a spontaneous outing to our annual pumpkin farm. It was beautiful!
There were three or four new things to try out this year so we spent time on each and every part. (Our day there was over six hours so we covered all of it!!)
A lot of the morning I spent just playing with the kids and trying to find shade while watching them play. I ended up not taking too many photos for the first few hours since they were just running wild everywhere anyway. Here's what we ended up with in a random sort of presentation:
Chloe was such a big girl this year -- amazing changes in her from last year. She is strong and tall enough to do most everything by herself now! I was smiling from the sidelines as she did not need to ride with me to get around on the big trikes!
I did end up taking them each on a ride around with me at one point, but they had so much more fun racing each other and doing it on their own.
The corn box is usually a favorite stop where can easily spend an hour, but this year the radio was playing so loudly on the overhead speakers it became unbearable after fifteen minutes. It was sooooo loud.
We stayed long enough for them to fill their clothes with corn and bury each other and make a giant corn mountain. It was also the only truly shady place so we cooled off nicely here too.
I loved hearing them say things to each other like, "I always do headstands in the corn, Chloe!" or "Evan let's race in the corn like we did last year!" This pumpkin farm tradition is becoming a part of their memories :-)
This is how I saw them most of the day: Running. Far ahead of me.
One of the new attractions was Evan's most favorite. These super cool dune buggy things.
Evan lapped this course eight or ten times, pedaling hard the whole way around and around.
I pushed Chloe since her legs weren't quite long enough to pedal. We made it around four times before I was tuckered out -- those things are heavy! (Plus we were on our fifth hour of being there and I was tired.)
While I caught my breath and rested my weary legs, Chloe happily played in the tires lining the course.
Evan started off-roading his buggy since no one else was on the course, but he took a break when Chloe discovered her second caterpillar of the day and ran to share it with him. Gotta make time for the small stuff.
Look how red he is from sweating!
Chloe worked on a caterpillar habitat for a while, picking grass and filling a tire for him, and Evan just kept going and going.
We finally moved on when he was thoroughly exhausted. He told me he was trying to build up his strength so he would "be able to help Dad."
Chloe's new favorite area was this wooden horse lot... of course.
She could climb up on all of them without help, by putting her little foot in the stirrup, holding the saddle horn and swinging up. There are no words to describe her joy!
Evan liked them a lot too and played along with Chloe. But after the fourth or fifth stop here he'd had enough. He just wanted to get to the dune buggy track again.
The hay bale maze was where I had my greatest realization of how much these two had grown since last year. Evan was so fast I couldn't get a single picture of him. Chloe was leaping and jumping every space in the maze by herself and with such confidence. Big kids indeed.
These "cute little gourds" and fall flowers were a source of entertainment and much needed rest for a while.
Always making a stop at the horses while passing by....
They had horse races. Chloe is always Secretariat. And she always wins.
I joined her when she handed me the reins to lead her horse through a trail.... over fallen trees, through muddy patches, wading in a small stream. She loved it and played right along. It was so real to her. I love that.
Can you just feel her insane love for horses?? It just oozes out of her face :-)
She loved these horses so much, she would stay at them while I walked with Evan to the slides or the hay bales. We could still see each other, but she was pretty far from me -- way out of her usual comfort zone where we always hear, "Wait for meeeee!" Not when there are horses though.
Our last stop was here where my kids learned how to milk a cow :-)
Evan did it too, but then started talking about the dune buggies again and never stopped....
He did not want to leave, and his lamenting face says it all.
Aside from the fight that ensued about it being time to leave, this year's outing was awesome. I loved hearing them recount their favorite parts to Todd when we were all home together for dinner. They love this place!
