Picking Pumpkins 2014

Guarding the pumpkins

Our school week began with our annual trip to pick pumpkins. I had arranged a field trip open to the homeschooling group with an anticipated school tour through the farm. But at seven o'clock in the morning, I received a call from the farmer's wife saying that they were canceling because the grounds were too muddy. A bit of a scramble ensued, but the short story is that five of us families ended up going instead to our old favorite Hall Family Farms for a morning of grand old fun.

A new feature this year is a retired fire truck fenced in and turned into a giant slide. It was exactly as fabulous as that sounds!

Who thinks up this wonderful stuff?

Ever popular are the old-fashioned water pumps. Playing with these ensured the children became soaking wet immediately whether or not the grey clouds were ever to let loose rain on us.

Children drove all manner of vehicles . . .

. . . or just ran with the wind!

Children sat on tires . . .

. . . and rode in a wagon pulled by a tractor!

We paused to eat lunch on the convenient picnic benches, then agreed to take the children on the Mini Corn Maze, advertised as requiring 10-15 minutes (in contrast to the Big Corn Maze which takes one to two hours).

I had never before gone in a corn maze because I suspected I would dislike the feelings of being closed-in and lost which are supposed to be considered "fun." Today's experienced confirmed my suspicions. Not my cup of tea!

We spent a wonderful three hours at the farm: I was still unloading the car upon our return when Mary, per her routine, ran upstairs and took five minutes to draw us a picture of our outing.