Pumpkin Farm Day!

Yesterday was a BEAUTIFUL fall day! Sunny, bright and quite cool. Oh, I love these crisp days! We drove to Enumclaw (which really isn't that far of a drive...It just sounds far, at least to me.) passing lots of beautiful fall colors on the way, to a new farm, Thommason Family Farm. This two year old farm is actually a working dairy farm for most of the year, but the cows are moved to a nearby farm just for the pumpkin harvest time for people like us who love coming to real farms.

We stayed for 4 hours enjoying the sights and activities. Of course, they had a pumpkin patch, but that didn't take up much of our time- maybe 5 minutes? We spent the bulk of our time in the "corn box," really a huge box made out of hay bails in a barn filled with grain (mostly corn). We loved going down the slide into the grain and jumping off of the hay bails. Mike and I had to keep our shoes on while we were in there. We didn't have socks on and the corn was absolutely FREEZING! We didn't mind dumping our shoes out. It amazed me that the kids didn't even mention the chill. Paige, as you see in the picture, even took her coat off. Although, Paige WAS a jumping maniac so that also meant that she had to climb a lot. Plus, walking through that stuff up to your knees is not easy!

There was also a barn filled with a miniature hay maze and a big pile of hay bales that had a slide at the top. Soooo fun! And in a corner of the barn there was an "all terrain tricycle track." We loved these John Deer tricycles! Jack loved chasing the kids on their tricycles. There were animals too.... A couple cows, a miniature horse, a pair of goats, a couple pigs, some kittens... This farm had everything! Plus, there was a huge play area called the "Kiddie Corral". They had a bubble station, a rubber duck racing station which Paige loved, a (not real, but really working) cow that you could milk (Of course this was popular with Jonah!), a large sandbox with lots of tractors and diggers... Also a hay ride and a little kiddie tractor pull. I think the kids rode in old plastic milk barrels. This video shows the kiddos on the tractor pull ride. I must have taken this video since it is sideways... Our regular camera is also our video camera and sometimes I just naturally turn the camera. Does anyone else do this? I think Mike thinks I am the biggest airhead (which I am NOT!) when I do this. Anyways, Jonah is in the back "car," and Paige and Jack are right in front of him.

Oh, we loved it!!! Oh, another thing, the cost of going to this farm is soooooo much cheaper than Remlinger. It was $6 for the kids, free for adults. We (Mike) spent a total of $30, including pumpkins. At Remlinger's, that would just be 2 admissions.
So you wanna see our jack-o-lanterns? This was our first year actually carving with kids. Mike did the carving with one of those cool pumpkin carving knives while I sorted the pumpkin seeds out of the pulp (So that I could roast them and then saute them in some oil and sugar and then burn them... :( ) Paige designed her own Jack-o-lantern this year with a marker. Jonah, who doesn't like to draw much, just asked for a bat. Cute, huh?

That's my bat! See my cute kitty!

I hope everyone else is having a happy fall too! We just love this time of year...the cool, sunny days, pumpkins (pumpkin soup, pumpkin bread, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin pancakes...), beautiful changing leaves, hot chocolate, hot cider, mmmmm..... and there is always the fun of Halloween!