Baggenstos

On October 10, we kept up our fall tradition of taking the kids to the pumpkin patch at Baggenstos. We try to go on the 2nd Saturday of October every year, mostly because the weather has always seemed to cooperate for us in early October. We had perfect weather again this year and had so much fun spending an afternoon outside.
Aiden is finally old enough to remember how things worked the previous year and he was so excited to take a hay ride. We got to sit right up front on the hay ride down to the pumpkin patch so Aiden could be right by the tractor.

Once we got down to the pumpkins, the boys couldn't decide on the perfect pumpkin, but we eventually found two to call our own. As John was in the line to take the tractor back up to the farm store, I walked around the patch with the boys some more. As we were walking around, Aiden found a very fuzzy caterpillar and the boys had a great time crawling along the ground after it. They were even very gentle and "petted" the caterpillar numerous times. I wouldn't let Aiden pick it up though, just out of a safety concern for the caterpillar. :^) Sadly, John had the camera and I wasn't able to get any pictures of the caterpillar bonding time.

After taking the hay ride back up to the farm store, I picked out a large pumpkin to use for baking (pumpkin muffins and scones!) and the boys chose two tiny pumpkins for indoor decor purposes. We spent at least another hour or so letting the boys play on the play structure, run around in the kid maze, look at the animals, and enjoy some caramel kettle corn. Yum!

I love our pictures from this year, but at the very beginning of the outing, we ended up with a dirty fingerprint on the camera lens and I didn't realize it until I got home and downloaded all the pictures to the computer. So each picture has a foggy smudge on one side, which is especially noticeable if the sunlight hit it just right. Oh well. If you'd like to see the whole album, just click on the title of the blog post. Here's a few to share:

The pumpkin patch and perfect weather!

Nathan was quite interested in the tractor. I think both boys would be happy living on a farm!

He found his pumpkin!

Nathan and this rooster had quite the connection. They stood there staring at each other for a long time. It makes me wonder what they were thinking. I'm pretty sure one of them was thinking, "Hmm, food...". :^)

And here's what we brought home. Two baby pumpkins, two carving pumpkins, and a big ugly pumpkin (which Aiden constantly reminds me is a Cinderella pumpkin) for baking.

Aiden's October was especially exciting pumpkin-wise, as his preschool class took a field trip to Heritage Farms about a week and a half later. I wasn't able to go with them, but Aiden told me all about Farmer John taking the whole class on a hay ride through the apple orchard and then they all got to pick out pumpkins. And there were animals too! He tells me that he really enjoyed the pigs. He brought a cute little pumpkin home and Farmer John gave the class a bag of apples. I think they are planning on cooking with the apples in class sometime this week.