It's PUMPKIN time!!!

Each year we take a trip to the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins and enjoy a night out. This year it was pleasantly warm! We boarded the wagon and waited for it to fill up before the tractor pulled us to the pumpkin patch. Here are the 4 kids all ready to go.

I enjoyed watching Athena and Samantha enjoy being together as sisters. They really do get along well.

We are ready too! Extreme close-up. AAAAAAGH!

This year a few more things were added to the pumpkin patch. In addition to these cutouts that they have each year for pictures, there was also a crate maze and a tractor to sit on. The kids had a blast! Nathan and Alex are the perfect size for these ghosts.

Athena and Samantha opted to sit on the hay bales. :) Then we all ran and chased and played hide-and-seek in the maze for awhile.

Next . . . sitting on the big tractor. Nathan and Alexandra were a bit nervous sitting on top, but they stopped whining long enough for me to take this picture.

Here is another cute sister picture. Ok, so they fought too about not having enough room on the seat and who gets to hold the wheel, but it all worked out.

This is the other cut-out available for pictures. That pumpkin on the end really freaks me out.

When it was finally time to go hunt for pumpkins everyone was so excited! Here is Alex racing to find the perfect one.

I think Nathan was the most picky this year. He went through 7 or 8 pumpkins before I finally just said, "You know what . . . just PICK one! You will never know the difference between this one and that one when we get home."

 LOL . . . Athena and Samantha are stalking their prey.

When all was said and done, everyone ended up with a pumpkin. My rule is that you have to be able to carry out your own pumpkin. As you can see, all pumpkins are carried! Mostly it's a selfish rule because I don't want the job of carrying 5 pumpkins around for the evening. It does tend to keep the pumpkin sizes in check, so it works!

I decided to get one too this year. I want to try baking it and using it for cooking. We'll see if I end up being so ambitious.

After all the pumpkins were picked, we boarded the wagon and took a ride back to the barn for ice cream. Sorry, Jeremy, for the awful picture of you. I picked this because the kids all looked so cute.

Overall this was a good pumpkin experience and I think the kids had a good time. We ate ice cream at the end and that turned into a battlefield because Nathan kept bugging his sisters and then several of them got into trouble, but I guess that's life, right? So I'll say . . . the pumpkin part of this experience was WONDERFUL - especially that the weather was so cooperative. I didn't take any pictures of the ice cream part because who wants to remember that? Except that my ice cream was pumpkin pie and it was SO GOOD! So, I'll remember to get that again.