Fall fun: Pumpkin Patch

Pumpkin season - my second favorite season!

And to start this season right - a pumpkin hat for Baby Bear. Blue still fits in the one I made for her in 2010, so she was already set :) Last year I came across a different kind of pattern for pumpkin hats and I'd have to say I've liked it so far. It does take a lot of math/conversions to get the size right but I think the ridges of the hat make for a really good "pumpkin" look :) Plus it's super stretchy so hopefully will get a few years of use out of it!

One of our favorite fall traditions is going to the pumpkin patch. It is about 45 minutes or so from here, out in the "country" area of northeast of San Diego.  The pumpkin patch is great, it's a family run farm that pretty much revolves just around their pumpkin patch. They grow pumpkins of many varieties (carving, cinderella, giants) and also have gourds, a corn maze, corn husk cannon, and some animals. 

Blue's been going since she was 13 days old :)

Mr. River had this weekend off work, so after Blue's gymnastics we headed over there!

First we visited the animals. Blue got to pet a buffalo and donkey. We also got to see baby pigs - too cute! The goats felt their ramps were more interesting than us mere humans, so we just watched them from afar. Baby Bear yelped and waved excitedly at all of them, she loves all things furry.  

Blue also climbed up and down the giant boulders they have - making me a nervous wreck but proving she is quite the monkey.

Then off to the pumpkins we went! I snagged a high-walled wagon, thinking it would prevent Baby Bear from flipping out. But it had an added bonus of letting the girls watch the ground move beneath them. 

Baby Bear gave it a round of applause.

We put the pumpkin hats on the girls, but they both protested. It was just too hot (about 80F). So we plopped the hats back on them for photos but otherwise let their heads cool off.

We went back through the pumpkin fields, let the girls out of the wagon to explore. I even took some photo opportunities with Baby Bear who tolerated mama's weird ideas of adventure.

I'd like to eventually go through the corn maze, but we always wind up bypassing it to just pick the pumpkins, play in the fields, take pictures, and enjoy the massive barn. Maybe next year :)

While out in the field, I went to inspect some of the pumpkins and came back to a wagon full! Blue took her job of finding a pumpkin quite seriously. She found every single pumpkin her little arms could lift

After emptying the wagon back out, we did keep one of the small pam pumpkins for Baby Bear but headed to the main pumpkin field to pick out ours. We got a bit sidetracked by the old tractor.

Then we explored the texture of the pumpkin vines some more. Baby Bear was not impressed.

No luck on finding pumpkins that "clicked" with us to bring home though, so we headed into the barn where they have rows upon rows and wagons upon wagons of pumpkins. I also got the annual picture in front of the tractor. 

We found our pumpkins - Blue found one for her, all mottled on one side but perfect in her eyes.  I found a nice round one, which wound up being the smallest of the three big ones (hmm, hope these don't reflect any kind of hierarchy!). Mr. River also found one that he liked. We also picked up some gourds for decoration, since Baby Bear excitedly yelled and yelped at them, then gave us this expression in her excitement:

After paying for the pumpkins, we lounged a bit on the grass then headed back home to enjoy a nice fall evening :)