Pumpkin Patch

Elsa was very excited this past Monday morning when I told her we were going to the pumpkin patch to pick out a pumpkin and go on a hay ride, pulled by a tractor. To prepare her, I pulled up the blog post from our first trip to Burt's Farm last October and showed her the pictures. As we readied ourselves and packed up the car, she carried her Lego tractor around and kept saying, "Go to pumpkin patch... yay, pumpkin patch!"

With toy tractor still in hand, we picked up Kate and James and then headed over to Shelly's house to meet up with her and Christian, as well as Alison and her boys, Finnan and Jude. In two cars, we made our way to North Georgia. It was a gorgeous day -- blue skies and sunny -- but I wouldn't have minded if it were about ten degrees cooler. Eighty-five degrees seems just a little too warm for picking out a pumpkin, but, hey, at least it wasn't raining! The leaves were just beginning to change color, and driving on those country roads made me long for last year's stay in the cabin.

When we arrived, we could see one of the tractors from a distance. Elsa was very excited, and started running in its direction, pointing to her Lego tractor and then to the real thing -- "Tractor! Go on hay ride!" First things first, though -- we walked around the abundance of pumpkins. There were the monstrosities we saw last year, down to the cute, tiny pumpkins. The kids had fun hugging and patting the huge variety, and us moms did our best to capture a group photo of them all.

It was not an easy task, though it seemed the boys were cooperating a bit more than Elsa.

After the barrage of snapping shutters, we made our way to two very long lines for the hay ride -- one to buy our tickets, and then another to actually get on the wagon. Overall, the kids did really well for such a long wait. It never occurred to me that Monday was Columbus Day until Alison mentioned that fact after a comment I made about being surprised by the crowd. Certainly, it seemed many people were taking advantage of an extended weekend. Elsa, as usual, was a little skeptical when it came our turn to board the hay wagon, but once we started going, her frightened cry turned into laughter, and she seemed to enjoy seeing the scarecrows and the talking pumpkins, and going through the covered bridge ("tunnel"). By the end, though, she was ready to get off, and said her many goodbyes to the tractor.

We had an interesting lunch among hoards of bees. It was definitely a test of my fear of being stung, but thankfully they seemed much more interested in our food and rotting pumpkins than us. I packed a lunch for Elsa, but once I bought a dish of BBQ, she became much more interested in my "turkey" than her PB&J, and ended up eating probably three-quarters of my lunch.

It was then time to actually pick out our pumpkins... and definitely Elsa's naptime. She was very interested in all of the bumpy pumpkins, but was becoming very frustrated with the fact that they were too heavy for her to pick up. So once she made her way over to the smaller pie pumpkins, of which she could handle, she started tossing them from side to side to, I guess, vent her frustration. It became a little difficult for me to hide my amusement, and I really wish I had tried to capture it on video. After quite the fuss, I was finally able to help her pick out a couple  to take home -- one bumpy one and another regular one that we will hopefully eventually carve. Then we picked out a couple of teeny tiny pumpkins. Elsa was most interested in just continuing to pick out pumpkins to load into the wheelbarrow.

Thankfully Elsa napped for just shy of an hour in the car. It was sad to leave North Georgia after such a short visit, but we had a fun time -- one that might just perhaps have to become a yearly tradition.