McCall's Pumpkin Patch

On Saturday we went out to McCall's Pumpkin Patch in Moriarty. This is one of our favorite fall activities, and we enjoyed it more than ever this year. This was our first year to be stroller-free at the park. The kids are the right age now to enjoy almost all the activities, we got a lot more out of it than we have some years in the past. It was well worth the trip! We love the pumpkin patch and do so appreciate our friends the McCalls.

The cow train is so popular with our kids! It is the first thing you come to when you enter the park. AnneMarie insisted they ride together, although there was plenty of room for them to have their own seat. We arrived about 10:30, just a 1/2 hour after they open, so we enjoyed short wait times at the beginning of the day.

Just relaxing on top of a big rock.

Running toward the tire play area. This area was new this year and it was Jack's favorite!

Another favorite is bunny town.

The pillow jumper is so cool! It is a giant open-air jumper. We all had a chance to jump. It is one of the favorite attractions at the park, luckily we went there early and did not have to wait in line.

Here the kids are mining for gems. You buy a bag full of dirt (and hidden semi-precious stones), pour it into a sifter, and then dip the sifter into a stream of slowly running water. I did a poor job of distributing the bag and AnneMarie wound up with 95% of the gems. Jack, of course, didn't care.

The tunnel slide was slicker and faster this year than we had remembered it.

Look at them in line for the slide! It warms my heart when they are so sweet and enjoying each other's company.

Jack was a little scared way up on that hay pyramid. It is a couple stories high! Sister helped reassure him (and Nathan was nearby).

The "corn box" was quite a hit. We found corn kernels in AnneMarie's hood much later in the day.

Getting ready to enter the corn maze. We had a little trouble, we wound up backtracking to get back out. Maybe next year we will find our way.

Jack seems to be attracted to pumpkins that have a greenish cast to them.

One hand!

The rule was, you have to be able to carry your pumpkin by yourself! These were rejected.

AnneMarie's final selection was an unripe pumpkin that looked a lot like an acorn squash. She named it Cutie. I was a little down on her choice, but she was very happy with it, and it only cost 75 cents!

Checking out a grasshopper in the pumpkin field.

Waiting for the next hayride back to the park.

A cuddle on the hayride. We had a fabulous day, can you believe we stayed there almost 6 hours? And we didn't do anything twice! We love McCall's. :)

Galloping Grace Pumpkin Patch

We went to the Galloping Grace Pumpkin Patch at Paseo & Eagle Ranch last Friday. It was an outing for Jack's playgroup, but the girls had the day off from school for Fall Break, so they got to come along too. This place was a lot of fun! It is a tiny fraction of the size of McCall's, but definitely worth the trip (since it's almost no trip at all - 8 minutes away maybe). We played for two full hours before continuing on to McDonald's with our friends.

Jack really enjoyed this little bowling game. The pins were toys but the bowling balls were little pumpkins!

One of Julia's favorite activities were the photo-op cut outs. She got everyone together to take these pictures. She would have liked to have more variations, but no one else was cooperating.

Jack loved the beanbag toss, he did it over and over and over.

Jack & Julia loved pumping the water for rubber duck races. Here is Jack "racing" with a little friend from our playgroup.

They both wound up quite wet. Luckily it was a warm day.

AnneMarie is peeking out from inside the corn maze. The maze was designed to be child-sized, so I never got to go in it, but AnneMarie especially enjoyed it. Julia wouldn't go in.