A Day at the Pumpkin Patch

Our "pumpkin people" in front of our house--that's Matt, me, Oliver & Chloe in pumpkin form.

Happy Columbus Day! What does that mean to us? A day off of school, beautiful weather and a trip to the pumpkin patch!

I should get some serious Mommy points for taking the kids on my own to pick pumpkins. I promised Chloe a hayride too, and many of the nearby u-pick pumpkin farms don't do hayrides on weekdays, even if it is a holiday. I did happen to find one u-pick farm that had advertised that all their farm activities would be open on Columbus Day, so off we went...along with everyone else with children in the state of NJ.

This picture doesn't do the crowds justice, but that is the line to get in to the u-pick pumpkins.

Once we parked and got unloaded, we stood in line to purchase tickets to go on the hayride and pick pumpkins. This is the first u-pick farm I ever went to that charged an admission to go and then pick pumpkins that you then paid for, but someone in line said many of the farms in NJ are going to this method as people wander the fields helping themselves to "free" samples from the fruit trees and berry bushes and then buying nothing.

We could also buy tickets for all of the fun activities and this farm had many--a corn maze, a hay bale tunnel, and hay bale pyramid (which you can partially see in the above photo), pony rides, train rides, hay rides, petting zoo, etc. It all added up and I think I am in the wrong business.

Our first activity was to go and pick pumpkins. We took the hayride out to the pumpkin field and wander the fields searching for the right pumpkin to carve. Chloe picked it and then declared it was too heavy for her to carry, so I did. Around that same time, Oliver decided that walking in a pumpkin patch wasn't for him and he wanted to be carried. So I carried Oliver and a pumpkin.

Chloe really was a big help and once we got to more even terrain, she helped me with Oliver.

Ahhh, so sweet.

After that, we rode back on the hay ride and put our pumpkins in the car. I wrangled Oliver into the stroller and we had some lunch (after we stood in the concession line for 20 minutes). Chloe sampled her first funnel cake. Yum! We then went to stand in line for the pony rides. Thirty-five minutes later, Chloe was on....

It really was fun, but would have been way more enjoyable had there not been so many people. I guess I should have expected it knowing that it was a school holiday. On the ride home, both Chloe and Oliver fell asleep soon after we left the farm. They both woke up as we pulled into our driveway at home.

The rest of our afternoon was spent carving the pumpkin and making one of Chloe's favorites, baked pumpkin seeds.

The finished project...