Dave's Pumpkin Patch

One of the fun parts of having kids in school is field trips.  Actually, that's one of the fun parts of homeschooling, too.  I just love field trips!  Brianna and I recently went with Hannah and Katie on their school field trip to Dave's Pumpkin Patch.

There was a hay ride, of course!

Which took us out to the field where we could choose pumpkins from among the vines.

They had "seeded" the pumpkin patch with many pumpkins of roughly the same size, and the kids each got one as part of their field trip fee.

I loved watching them run amok in the dirt.  I feel bad that my younger kids have missed out on the dirt and up close experience with plants and bugs and rocks and trees that my older kids got when we lived on land.

Brianna had had a dental medication reaction, and was pretty drugged up and not in school, so I brought her along so I could make sure she got her lunchtime medicine.

I think she enjoyed getting out into the fresh air after 2 trips to the dentist, 2 trips to the doctor, and a visit to the ER.  It was a crazy week.

Miss Katie with her chosen pumpkin (although, I'm not sure that's the one we actually brought home).

Miss Hannah, with a lovely pumpkin flower that was given to her by a boy in her class!  So not ready for that yet.  She's 10.

My big girl, on the mend, but kinda loopy. 

Hannah with her pumpkin, which the boy who gave her the flower carried for her.  And you can see the orange manicure I gave her.

On the hay ride back to the main farm area.

When we got off the hay ride, we went through the corn maze.

I'm not happy with the composition of this picture, but it's the only one of us together.  I wish I'd looked at it and scootched the girls out a bit more.

Where's Brianna?  Her jacket camouflages against all the corn. 

There she is!

They have 2 huge "sandboxes" full of corn to play in.  It's quite a tactile experience.  If you like to run your hands through the bins of pieces in the Lego store, you'll love it.

We tried to bury Katie, but she wanted no part of that idea, so we buried Hannah instead.

Katie deigned to get her hands in, after seeing the rest of us having so much fun.

There were chickens, pigs, and goats on the farm.

The corn from the sandboxes got everywhere, and when the girls took their shoes off to go on the jumpy hill, we found this. 

About this point, I was kind of over the pumpkin patch, so it was nice for them to go and jump while I just watched. 

It was a different dynamic, not having Jack with us.  I was a little sad when I realized that the jr high students don't go to the pumpkin patch (with the school).  But since he'd already gone with us to Fog Willow, it was okay. 

Most of the group. 

All in all, it was a nice day.  Cooler than I'd expected, but we still had fun. 


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Fog Willow Farms Pumpkin Patch

The kids had a day off, so we went to the pumpkin patch. 

It's always so fun to watch them run off to play once we're inside. 

We've been coming to this local patch for a long time now.  I have a picture up on the school room wall from here taken in 2011. 

Katie had some technical problems with her leg, so we stopped for a bit to get that all straightened out. 

Jack and his friend, N, grabbed a wagon to haul the girls up the hill in. 

What goes up must come down, right?  Lots of fun rolling down the hill. 

The obligatory sign picture.

You never know what you're going to get, weather wise, with October.  Some years we go to the pumpkin patch in shorts, other years, it's rainy.  This day was just perfect. 

I took advantage of the pretty day to take some pictures of my favorite little people, of course. 

They're growing and changing so fast. 

Even our Little Friends, who were visiting when we went to the pumpkin patch are growing and changing.  They're talking a lot more now.  They've always been good climbers at the park. 

Even the big boys like to climb at this atypical playground.

I got to catch up with a couple of mama friends while we looked at all the animals and the kids ran amok.  Somehow, I didn't manage to take any pictures of the hay ride, but we enjoyed it nonetheless.  Autumn is such a nice time of year to enjoy the outdoors and the harvest season. 


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Mission San Juan Bautista

This is the final post from our mini vacation last month.  You can read about Mission San Jose, the Dennis the Menace playground, Mission Carmel, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium to catch up.

I took the kids to Mission San Juan Bautista nine years ago, after a trip to Monterey Bay Aquarium, so Jack and I had been there before.  Jack, however, was only 4 at the time, so it was pretty much all new to him.

Upon entering the gift shop to pay our fee, we were told that there was a funeral service that day, so we would not be able to see the main church until after it was over, but to explore the rest of the mission and then we'd have access to the church and cemetery.

At the prior 2 missions, I'd shown the kids rosaries, so in the gift shop, I asked, "Can anyone tell me what these pretty beads are called?"  Katie burst out, "ROSEMARY!"  A docent snorted.

The music books were massive.

Hey look!  Another cauldron, like the one at Mission San Jose.

We had fun wandering around looking at all the artifacts.

This totally reminded me of my grandparents' house.  They had an organ with the knobs like this, and they had an octogon clock like that, too.

This mission must have been very beautiful in it's day.

It even had a sewing machine!

Liturgical vestments.

There's such an amazing sense of history in these old missions.  I'm so glad I got the opportunity to expose the kids to them.

Then we went out in the garden.

The kids discovered a sundial, which was an impromptu science lesson, of course.

The photos behind the statue give information about each of the different missions in California.

Again, I took advantage of the pretty scenery to take pictures of my beautiful children.

One of whom was a little pictured-out.

The former well.

Mission San Juan Bautista is on the San Andreas Fault, but we did not see the seismograph that was there the last time I was there, so that was a little disappointing.

After exploring the inside of the quadrangle, we ventured out, staying a respectful distance from the church, which was still in use.

The views were breathtaking, and the weather was perfect.  You know, people complain about California, but I love it here.

In preparation for out trip to Mission San Diego in April, we read Mystery on the California Mission Trail, which talked a lot about the mission bells, so it was fun to see more mission bells. 

The doorway there is an auxiliary exit from the cemetery, but it's padlocked.  Guests enter and exit the cemetery through the main church.  So we couldn't visit the cemetery while we were waiting for the funeral to be over. 

We took a little stroll, instead. 

We saw lots of beautiful flowers, and enjoyed the tranquility. 

The really disappointing part is that after the church emptied out and we saw the hearse leave, they locked up the whole mission and left an "out to lunch" sign.  Since we were on our way home with a 3 hour drive ahead of us, I really didn't want to wait another hour to see the church and cemetery, so we left.  But I was pretty bummed. 

On our way out of town, we stopped to get gas, and saw the hearse at the local cemetery. 

This was a fun trip, and has left me with a bit of wanderlust.  Although I miss the baby days, traveling with older kids is really easy, and I'd like to do some more exploring with them, as they have days off from school. 


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