Pumkin Patch

Ethan's class went to a pumpkin patch for their autumn field trip. Emmy and I went with. We had to bundle up. It's amazing how just three days before it was 95 degrees outside, and for the field trip we needed coats, hats, and gloves.




We began with a really nice hay ride. They took us on a trail through the woods. It was beautiful, and the most fun part of the ride was finding the animals along the path. They took a variety of animals (I'm assuming they were originally roadkill) like skunks, squirrels, raccoons, groundhogs, deer, even a couple red foxes and had them mounted and placed all throughout the trail. The kids had fun finding them.




The hay ride ended at the pumpkin field. Each child got to pick three gourds and a pie pumpkin. Ethan was so excited! Of course, he grabbed the first three gourds he saw, but took his time finding the perfect pumpkin.

We saw some live animals, too. I didn't get a picture, but there were pigs in the barn. The kids could also feed the goats.

I'm 100% anti-petting zoo, unless I can actually be there to scrub my children's hands practically raw so they don't get super sick like the kids I've heard about in the news. I remember Owen went to a different pumpkin farm for his field trip. I asked him if there was a petting zoo. He said there was. I asked if he went to it before or after lunch. He said before. I asked if he pet the animals. He said no. I said good boy! Then he said, "But I fed the goats! And got goat slobber all over my hands." Ugh. I asked if he scrubbed his hands really really well and made lots of bubbles, or did he just kind of rinse the soap off without scrubbing. He was honest, which I want him to be, and said he just rinsed it off. BLECK! Needless to say, Ethan chose not to feed the goats.

They had a miniature donkey mother with its baby. I'm not sure if this is the mom or the baby.

This is a rabbit village.

Here's a close-up of the rabbit village. These bunnies were huge and fluffy and adorable.

We stopped to take a class picture in front of this wall. Pretty!

In one of the barns they had a rope ladder. The idea was to climb it to the top and ring the bell.

It looks like it'd be easy, but it was very very wobbly. One of Ethan's buddies held the ladder while he climbed. I wanted to try it too, but there were parents watching.

This was fun! They made slides out of this huge tubing. I don't know what the tubing is for, but the kids really zoomed down those slides!

When we got back to school, the kids used their gourds to make a gourd family. Since we are a family of 5, the teacher gave us a couple more gourds.

We had to impale the gourds on nails hammered into a board.

Then add faces....

And here is Ethan's finished project.

We had a lovely day!