Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday was a Mom's Club field trip to Uncle Bob's Pumpkin Patch. I got lost getting there, even using my GPS. Apparently TomTom has no idea that a certain road has never been completed. Elijah got stuck in this same spot not too long ago. It takes you right up to a fence that is up against the underpass to I-85. Once we got turned around it still took us a while to find the place. There was only a hand painted cardboard sign by the road, and it had an arrow pointing, but there were two roads to choose from. Both were gravel and looked like driveways. I was behind a minivan and I just followed them. We went around a lot of twists and turns and finally came out by some guy wearing a bright orange t-shirt that said "Uncle Bob's". We had made it! I wished several times we had met up with the others and driven in the caravan.

It really was a great farm. It reminded me somewhat of the Museum of Appalachia. They had a hayride you got onto first that took you all the way around the farm. The man even pulled right up to the fences and let the kids throw hay out of the cart to the horses. He did this twice, so both sides could have a turn.

The girls loved it, but Benjamin seemed to get more out of the whole day. (We were with my friends Susan and Malinda, and their daughter's Anna and Maddie). After the very bumpy, muddy hayride, we were sent to a variety of stops, starting with a beekeeper who explained to the kids (all 3 year olds, only Benjamin and the mom's got anything out of it) all about how bees make honey and about the queen, etc. Then the kids got to watch a movie on bats and then we were sent on a nature hike. It wasn't a bad walk at all, I just felt for the moms that had strollers and babies. Malinda said it wasn't too bad, but her baby was being carried by someone else so she didn't have to worry about shaking the stroller. Anna, Avery and Benjamin took it more as a 'nature run' so Susan and I had a fun time keeping up with them. They were supposed to have these sheets with different trees on them to label, but again, 3 year olds have no interest. They just wanted to see how fast they could get through it.

After the hike, they gathered the kids for a story. It was okay. The storyteller was all of 15 years old and tried to read a pretty hard book to the kids. It had a lot of motions and such for them to do at certain points, and again, the moms and Benjamin got it.

After this they got to go to the chicken coop and learn about how the chickens lay eggs and how long it takes for the egg to become a chick. Benjamin stayed in there with the lady explaining things for over 10 minutes, all the 3 year olds just ran around the fence listening to the rooster crow. I wouldn't go into the coop, it was all of 4x3 and I wasn't about to go in. Benjamin would go in for a while, run out, tell us some interesting fact and then run back it. It was funny to watch. I really am glad he got to go because school was out for the day. Right next to the coop was the petting zoo. I wasn't going to go in, but it was small and pretty clean so I decided to head on in and make sure the kids didn't throw poo at one another or anything. The only thing worth mentioning about that place was this tiny baby goat that was actually cute! He would stand in the water dish and wait for kids to come pet him. If none did, then he would walk up to the adults and lightly tap your leg with his head. He was cute. We only stayed a few minutes, the smell was more than any of us could handle.

Then we went to watch a lady take a variety of things and show us how they could be woven into yarn or string or whatever to make clothes. She had sheep shearings, corn husks, soy products...a ton of different things. But at this point, the kids lost interest. There was another display to go to after that, but the girls were done. Benjamin enjoyed it, the lady was showing them how they used to husk corn with this old metal contraption, but Anna and Avery took off after the pumpkins. After that we all sat down and had a picnic. It was a really fun day. I am running out of time, so I may post more pictures of our day later.