The Boys' First Pumpkin Patch Adventure

Dan and I wanted to take the boys to a pumpkin patch this year, and we were researching nearby locations when some friends posted photos on Facebook of a great family farm that they had visited. It turned out that the farm was only a 20 minute drive away and, in addition to their pumpkin patch, it had an animal/petting zoo area, pony rides, a stroller- accesible corn maze, a playground, and a hayride all included in their admission price of just $3/person. They also had really yummy concessions available- delicious pulled pork BBQ. The weather was a bit overcast and chilly, but we had a great time, and it was fun to see how excited Ethan was to experience everything that the farm had to offer. Ethan and Dan got to pet and feed some goats (we were given an ice cream cone full of goat feed).

This goat was timid, but very friendly

Dan poured some of the feed into Ethan's hand

The "nice goat" very gently ate out of Ethan's hand

Then a second, larger, more aggressive goat came over to eat and nearly swallowed the ice cream cone whole. That intimidated Ethan, so Daddy fed the rest of the food to the goats and we moved on to check out the other animals which included sheep, pigs, a bunny, chicks, a donkey, and I think ducks too.

Ethan really enjoyed watching the tiny chicks. We envied the heat lamp in their enclosure ;)There was a 3-acre corn maze to explore, and at each T we asked Ethan whether we should go left or right. He got a kick out of deciding which way to go and finding out whether we were at a dead end or not. Unfortunately he got so caught up in the maze that...he had an accident that necessitated a change of clothes part of the way through (which is why his pants changed from jeans to red windpants). Thankfully we had a change of clothes with us and a discreet dead end where we could do a quick change.There were lots of neat activities for the kids including sand tables, a mini general store, a swing set, a tractor to climb on, a teeter totter, etc. Ethan was thrilled with the pony ride

The owners of the farm also sponsored a racecar that was on display for the kids to explore and sit inAnd last, but not least, we walked out to the pumpkin patch. Ethan loved scouring the patch for just the right pumpkin. I think that he was surprised at how heavy they were when he tried to pick them up. The patch was huge, and we easily found a large pumpkin for Ethan and a smaller one for RyanEthan worked hard to pull our pumpkin cartRyan checking out our pumpkins. He was content to ride along in his giant, cozy, toddler-sized Bundle Me.Here is a rare photo of me (gasp!) Ethan and I were getting ready to pull the cart back to our van with the 2 pumpkins that we had settled on

We had a fantastic time, and we'll definitely be making a return trip to this farm next year.