Pumpkin Patch
My best friend and I decided we wanted to take our babies to the pumpkin patch this year. Sure, they aren't really old enough to remember it or do much, but you can say that about almost everything we do with a 5 month old! Luckily with all of our crazy schedules, we were able to find a weekend we could go.
We have two big pumpkin patches near us, but we opted to go to Lyon Family Farm. It was cheaper and closer, and we didn't really know any different. They opened at 9:00 a.m., and we arrived around 9:15. With the girls, we wanted to get there as early as possible to avoid as much of the crowds as we could.
Parking was a breeze since we were so early, and we walked right up to the ticket booth. It was $10 per adult. The babies were free.
We debated what to do first. This was more because of Melody than Lydia. Melody hates her car seat. Right now our stroller is just a base, and we use our car seat. We have a traditional stroller, but we haven't put it together yet. So the point is, we hated to get Melody out of her car seat until she got fussy. But as we started walking around, we discovered most things we would want to do would require her to be out of her stroller. So we just took the plunge and started doing things.
First up was the baby corn bin. We thought this would make some cute pictures and it was for babies, right? There was even a nice sign that said it was for 2 and under. There were a few frustrating points throughout the day, and this was one of them. There were kids clearly over 2 in the bin. And I am not talking they were 3 or 4. These kids were 8 or 9, at least. And to make matters worse, their parents were standing right there with them as they jumped in the bin and threw corn as young kids were trying to play. It was really uncalled for. I stood back with my camera and was kind of hesitant to take Melody to the bin, but my best friend took charge and walked right up and laid her daughter down in the corn bin. The moment that happened, some of the parents cleared out their older kids. Not all parents did, but at least some did. We were able to get a few decent pictures before the older kids that remained starting throwing corn again. So out we went!
Next up were the swings. Melody loves to swing both inside and outside. We don't have an outside swing at our home, but Brad's parents do. So we decided to give it a go there. The girls had fun.
After swinging, the dads let the girls ride down the "small" slide. Our goal before the end of the day was to ride down the big slide with the girls, but the lines were way too long.
We decided to take a few pictures, then we headed into the corn maze. We weren't too smart about this because we didn't realize there were maps in case you got lost. We didn't get lost or anything, but it was a huge maze and I could see how you could easily get lost. The maze was definitely more for us than the babies.
After the maze, it was around 10:30. We decided to beat the crowd and grab lunch. They have a wide variety of food that they serve for lunch. It is pretty much fair food. We had a burger and chicken fingers. Oh and the boys had to play a bit...
We finished up eating then decided to take some photos. They had some great photos ops throughout the farm. Here is frustrating part number two. We go to our first photo op, and there are kids playing on the hay and such, and they were moving pumpkins around. The parents saw this going on. I know this because I saw the parents asking the children what they wanted for lunch as they were playing. I think this clearly appears to be a photo op and not a play area. But the parents did not seem to care. We waited a minute as if we were "in line" for this photo op. Finally, my best friend's husband just went and sat where you would sit for pictures. I took a few pictures (and you can see it below but I removed the child's head for privacy reasons). The parents did finally see what was going on and told their kids to move. Finally.
We took photos at one other location and then we did the growth chart photo. That will be neat to do year to year.
Next up was the hayride. We took the hayride to the pumpkin patch so that we could pick a pumpkin for the girls. This was fun, but not what I expected. I think I expected the hayride to drop you off and you sent an unlimited amount of time in the pumpkin patch. That isn't how it worked though. Your specific hayride went to a specific area of the patch. Your group all got off and had to return together. Luckily we found some nice pumpkins and returned back to the farm. Lydia had her bottle on the hayride. Then when we returned back to the farm, Emily and I went and sat at the pavilion, and I fed Melody her bottle while she fed Lydia her oatmeal.
At this point the girls were pretty much done. It was almost 1, and we wanted to all be back home by 2:30 for our Alabama football game. Emily and I wanted snacks before we left, so we went and bought a funnel cake, fried Snickers, and fried Oreos. This was the last frustrating part. The staff really didn't have a good system to make sure everyone received everything they ordered. They really were not sure who made what or who was next. I would get that if it was day 1 or 2, but this is near the end of the season. Our wait wasn't that bad or anything, but it was more the point of organization was lacking.
After we enjoyed our yummy treats, we decided to head home. We left around 1:45. Overall, I think it was a really good trip. The girls are finally getting old enough we can do things such as this. I would definitely go back next year without question. Happy Fall!
