What better way to kick off my favorite month (hello, October!)
than with some pictures of our pumpkin patch adventures
from the weekend. Papa Rob wanted to attend the car show
at the Zoo - so Max and I headed to Dayton super late
Saturday night, got our beauty sleep, and were ready
to hit the patch on Sunday.
My parents sort of live off Route 48 (or Far Hills
if your local) - and if you keep going down that
road - you will run across quite a few
garden centers and pumpkin farms ....so
that's just what we did! Our first stop was
Treadways. This place isn't too fancy
(in fact, I was surprised they took credit cards)
but they had the BEST variety of pumpkins
(which is just what this Mama wanted
for our front porch).
Max wrangled the wagon for us ...while
being very picky about which pumpkins
he wanted to pull (hint: not the weird pumpkin
Grandpa picked out). I also convinced him
that in order to ride on this bouncy horse thing -
he had to get his picture taken (see below)
by the huge wooden pumpkin. He totally
went for it - and gave us real smile and all :)
Perhaps the highlight of the farm for Max
though -was the horse and buggy - made from
hay bales and corn stalks. They let you
sit right up in the front - even providing
hats for the driver to wear...and reins for
tiny driver to pull.
He was quite enamored with the hat and insisted
that all others in buggy wear one too! He also
wanted each of us to co-drive with him....Grandpa
was certainly the most hilarious! :)
I mean, can you even with him and the hat?
The answer is no, you cannot.
He was loving life in the buggy and I feel
quite certain he's ready to take on the Oregon Trail
any day now. He also asked me to "look in the back
and see all the pumpkins we were carrying".
Once out of the horse and buggy - we also
found this smaller buggy, which we hypothesized
was being pulled by a donkey. Max hopped right in
the back of that one too.
There was so much to choose from - in the end
we filled up Grandpa's trunk space with about 8
pumpkins total plus two mums! All Max approved
of course.
After lunch at McDonald's (yeah, we totally go there) -
we made our second stop at Grandma's Gardens.
This is more of a year round garden center.
The highlight here was a small train that kids
can ride and then hop off, pick a pumpkin,
take it back to "Grandpa's barn" and decorate it.
While waiting his turn for the train - Max
wanted to put his head in the "jail" ...and
the "wanted" poster. The theme for their
Halloween decorations seemed to be western...
When we texted Rob these pictures, he
texted back saying, "new time out spot?".
Which I thought was hysterical....
This is Max (below) totally floating on
cloud 9 after getting off the train.
He was LOVING the train ride...and waved
to us with a big ole' grin every time it passed.
Our final stop was a place that we've literally
been going to since I was in first grade - called
"Windmill Farms". Max wanted everyone to
put their face in the picture below :)
Windmill has lots of wooden play structures in
shapes like a castle, pirate ship, space rocket, train,
fire engine etc. and he went up in all of them! We wouldn't see
him for a couple minutes and then he would pop
out and come sliding down! He also liked running through this
"witch tunnel" made from corn stalks.
The final adventure at Windmill Farms was going on the
"Haunted Hayride". We warned Max ahead of time that
it might be scary and things might pop out at us.
He repeatedly told us "I'll just be brave"....so we went.
We passed by lots of random things in the woods
(think Peter Pan cut outs, flying monkeys etc.) and several
of them - did in fact pop out! He did pretty good - until I
screamed (let it be known, I don't like scary things) - and
then he jumped a little. I don't think he actually cried.
The more horrifying part was all the mud and tractor
ruts that we had to drive through. They purposefully
flood the trail and so you are driving through deep
puddles of mud (that smell terrible) and then the
driver turns around and says "anyone want to push"
and the whole time I'm just gripping my own dad's
arm like please don't let this tractor bottom out
or the sides fall off. Needless to say - we survived
enough to tell about it (and pick out a pumpkin)!
Halfway through the tractor ride (from hell) - you stop
in the middle of this corn field. It's not even a real
pumpkin patch - but they do haul pumpkins out there
so you can pretend it is. Max and Mims were brave
enough to get out and collect our pumpkins. Grandpa
had the unfortunate job of hauling them back in the
wagon. haha!
The final part to our day was enjoying a cider slushy!
Seriously - these might be the BEST part about
fall...until Max debuts his Halloween costume, of course!
Stay tuned for more fall fun!
xoxo
p.s. I also found the perfect costume
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