pumpkin patch

There is a pumpkin patch just down the road from our house. We had passed it a few times and seen the progress of the pumpkins. They looked huge! We stopped by one Saturday to walk the fields and pick some pumpkins and discovered that they were definitely big. Most were far too big to use as carving pumpkins. We found a few tiny pumpkins and then picked up our carving pumpkins elsewhere. It was fun to see so many huge pumpkins in one place though.

Ben uncovered an old fire pit in our backyard so we ended the day roasting hot dogs and marshmallows. It's nice that our yard provides an endless supply of firewood.

Group photo fail.

halloween: carving pumpkins

I am perpetually two weeks behind on blog posts. To avoid posting Halloween pictures in December, I'll get through those first and then go back to earlier October happenings.

Hurricane Sandy gave us an excuse to hang out at home for a few days, eat pumpkin cinnamon rolls, drink hot chocolate, and carve our pumpkins. We were lucky to never lose power and only had lots of branches and sticks to clean up in the yard when it was all over.

The girls loved designing and carving their pumpkins. Oliver was tentative at first, but soon figured out that he enjoyed scooping out the slimy insides of the pumpkin. And occasionally eating them.

Jumbo's Pumpkin Patch

I'm realizing just how far behind I am on blog posts, since I'm pretty sure we've been to at least two more pumpkin patches since these photos were taken at Jumbo's a few weeks ago. Perhaps Hurricane Sandy (aka Frankenstorm) will give me some time to catch up, assuming our power stays on.

We joined my friend Jessica and her kids for a beautiful drive up to Maryland a few weeks ago and tried a new pumpkin patch, Jumbo's. The location in the countryside was beautiful. The kids loved the hayride out to the corn maze and pumpkin patch. The corn maze was huge so we only ventured in a short distance for fear of getting lost for an hour with five tired children.

The pumpkins were beautiful and we pulled two favorites right off the vine. Oliver is obsessed with pumpkins so he was in heaven trying to pick up any pumpkin he could lift. Amelia was, of course, devastated when she found out we went to a pumpkin patch when she was at school. We made up for it later.

a perfect saturday. part 1.

A few weeks ago we headed out to Hollin Farms (scene of the great peach picking adventure) to pick our pumpkins. It was such a perfect fall day. After my long absence we were in need of a family fun day. Virginia is AMAZING. And this was definitely the most scenic pumpkin patch I have ever seen. The girls loved running through all of the pumpkins. Elsa chose one almost immediately but Amelia was much more careful with her selection. They also had a fun corn maze and some farm animals. And breathtaking views.