Pumpkins!

The arrival of October means planning a visit to the pumpkin patch. It's still hard for us former-northerners to believe that this activity can be done in shorts here! At the pumpkin patch we visited, large piles of pre-harvested pumpkins adorned the field. These piles made festive photo backdrops.

Jaden and Cody at their first TX pumpkin patch

We purposely planned our pumpkin patch trip with cousins Ian, Ryan, Nathan...

...and Grandpa and Grandma who had just arrived in town for a visit!

One of the first activities we did was to ride the train. We waited in line on these hay bale paths.

Can you pick out Cody hiding between Ian and Jaden?
 Kinda looks like a phantom set of arms and legs! :)

This train ride was a first for Nathan, I believe, and a highlight for the other little boys!

Then, thanks to Grandpa and Grandma's ticket purchases, the 3-year-old boys rode down the inflatable slides.

We used up our final tickets by riding on this hayride. Thankfully, we all made it through without any little guys falling off the nearby edge! :)

Grandpa's wagon rides were just as fun as the hayride! :)

At the very end, we fed hay to some goats...

...and climbed a bit more on the pumpkin piles! On the way home, Jaden and Cody said that the pumpkin climbing was their favorite part of the entire trip.

About a week before Halloween, our family did some pumpkin carving. Cody and Jaden remembered (most likely from some books we had read recently) that the inside of the pumpkins contained "yucky pulp and seeds." They were curious to get a glimpse of (but NOT to touch) what was inside.

Then, they directed Mommy and Daddy to design one happy face and one sad face on our pumpkins.

After that, the boys pretty much lost interest in the activity. :) The rest of our family pumpkin carving fun consisted of Mommy and Daddy doing all the work and Cody and Jaden playing with their toys in the driveway. We did draw them back for a short time to help Daddy carve the sad face pumpkin.

Jaden was even willing to try out the carving knife for one or two cuts.

In the end, the boys were quite pleased with our completed pumpkins. So pleased, in fact, that they wanted to pose just like their pumpkin faces. :)