A Fun Little Pumpkin Adventure

Caroline and I took advantage of my day off and went out for a little pumpkin patch adventure. I drove us out to Hollin Farms about 45 miles outside DC. As you can see from the big smile we got in this picture, Caroline had quite a fun time. (She made friends with the lady who worked there, which is who she is smiling at. She doesn't quite understand that she's supposed to smile at Mommy when that black box called a camera is around).

It is a quiet little place out about an hour from hour house when there is no traffic. Given Caroline's early rising tendencies, we were able to make it out there about a half hour after they opened around 9:30 (and without any traffic).

As you can see, they had more than just a pumpkin patch. Caroline was particularly enamored with the chickens. I think it was because she could see them so close. (Though I was smart enough to keep her far enough back so that she when she tried to put her hand through the wire she was unsuccessful. She was less than pleased, but unpecked.) They also had two goats, though Caroline wasn't as excited about them. She really thought that the fast pecking of the chickens was more interesting.

The lady who worked there was also kind enough to give us some bad apples. So we walked through the pumpkin patch to the bottom of the hill to feed the pigs.

This is the face Caroline made when I tried to get her to say "here piggy." Clearly she was not up for such nonsense. But, she did think the pigs were rather fun. I couldn't get a picture while holding her, but she gave the pigs some winning smiles. As you can see they came over to say "hi, have any more apples?" They were rooting around in the fallow corn fields for food. So, the apples seemed to be a welcome distraction/treat.

Then we went out and found a pumpkin. (Well, we actually found three). This wasn't one of the final contestants--mostly because I couldn't cary this pumpkin and Caroline. I tried to get more pictures of Caroline looking up, but she was pretty enamored with the pumpkin. She patted it and talked to it. I'm not really sure what she was telling the pumpkin, but she definitely thought that it was fascinating.

All in all, I think it was a pretty fun morning. We have three pumpkins that are now sitting at the base of our stairs decking our house out for fall.