Saturday, October 11, 2008

A Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

I love the show Jon and Kate Plus Eight. I actually discovered it when Emma was at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital last November. There were very little choices for television viewing if you didn't want to watch cartoons but one of the channels was TLC. Since it was Thanksgiving week they were showing marathons of shows everyday, one day was Miami Ink (I had never seen that before either), one day was Big People/Little World, etc. But Jon and Kate Plus Eight really caught my attention. Finally a family that was a bit crazier than mine! (For those of you who might not know about this show it's about a family with 7 year old twins and 4 year old sextuplets.)

Darrell was the "let's go out and chop down a Christmas tree" member of our family. Our butts would be firmly planted somewhere and he would say "Lets go do something." and we did, almost all the time. So when he died we kind of lost that. Sometimes it was just so much effort for me to do things so I just didn't do it. But then I saw an episode of Jon and Kate Plus Eight and Kate said she wanted her kids to experience life even though there were so many of them. She wanted them to create memories and I realized my kids lives were slipping by because of my laziness.

So this weekend, for the first time since we were in Little Rock (four years ago) we went to a pumpkin patch. It had been awhile since I had my Big Boy Camera out and wanted to use it to take photos of the kids in the pumpkin fields. What a great photo op! I thought. Trace had to work but I told Ross that he WAS coming, executive order. No getting out of this one! Grumbling was involved, especially when I dictated his clothing choices. My children's outfits had to coordinate!

Apparently pumpkin patches are different here. Back in Little Rock we went to an actual field full of pumpkins, walked around and picked our pumpkins. It was a lot of fun and the kids loved it. But here, they have pumpkins laying around on a gravel parking lot in a fenced area. You could pay $5 per person to go do some jumping things and other activities but by the time the my sister-in-law Janne' and her kids, and my family got there it was after 5 pm and they closed at 6. We decided to just get pumpkins.

Needless to say, I didn't get my pumpkin field photos but I made due with what I had and they didn't turn out half bad.

Jenna and Julia when we first arrived.

All my children (except Trace) We had the hardest time getting Ryan to look at the camera, much less smile. Starting with the tallest and going clockwise: Ross, Jenna, Ryan, Julia and Emma.

Photo with me! Yes, Emma is missing a shoe. We lost it somewhere, I just hope it is in the car somewhere because we looked all over that parking lot!

Julia picking up a pumpkin and being her dramatic self.

They had wagons for the kids to pull around and put their pumpkins in. Ryan had the most fun just pulling his little wagon around.


Jenna found her pumpkin pretty quickly.

"Are we done yet???" We had been there about 10 minutes at this point. Ross is holding Emma and trying to keep his teen attitude in check.

My nephew Adam. His father, Rick, and my parents paid the money to go to the other part so we didn't see much of them.

My nephew Dillon. Quite a character this one is! He's obviously exerting much effort pushing his very heavy pumpkin in the wheel barrow.

My brother Kevin and SIL Janne's' kids: Caitlin, Dillon and Zach.

Ryan now has a pumpkin to pull around.

There was bin full of little miniature pumpkins. Ryan's checking them out.

Emma and Ryan on a hay bale in front of a wagon.

Emma loves her little pumpkin and carried it around the parking lot pumpkin patch.

Ryan at the very end of out outing. He finally got relaxed just as we were about to head to the car. And yes, he needs a hair cut!

9 comments:

Jesse, James and Lindsey's mom said...

TO cute!
A little bit of Alaska trivia. The biggest pumpkin at this year's state fair was over 900lbs! It was grown right here in Alaska! I so want to go to pumpkin patch! Dont have those here in Anchorage! Looks like you had a great time!!
Kathy

Donna said...

You've been TAGGED! Check out my blog for details!
lenaandmacey.blogspot.com

Love ya!
Donna

Mei Mei Journal said...

Looks like fun. I love Ryan's long hair.
April

Denise Grover Swank said...

The boys like his hair long too! I guess I'm a bit defensive after taking him to the Cleft Clinic on Friday and a couple of people thought he was a girl. My boys hair was always long when they were younger, but it was the style then. I do think Ryan needs at least a trim!

Beth said...

FUN day! I just posted about some pumpkin fun we had as well. I love the picture with everyone included. You have a beautiful family. Way to make the effort and get out there. That is a good lesson for all of us. I know there are times when Hope even asks to go to the park but I just want to catch up on John and Kate's latest episode, too. Looks like you made some great memories.

Beth in WI
(Did you find the missing shoe?)

Kristy said...

Denise I LOVE all of these pictures and no worries I have a "teenager" too!!!! She would have the same look on her face! But I have to admit that my favorite picture is the one will Dillon and the little pumpkin....TOO FUNNY!!! I am so glad that you did this for your kids, but I would bet that it was really good for you too!!!

Love and blessings, Kristy

Donna said...

I guess Ross is in the "always wear a hat sideways on my head" phase? I don't think I've ever seen him otherwise. :)

All this pics are adorable!

Denise Grover Swank said...

Beth, no I couldn't find the shoe in the car either. I have no idea where it went. sigh... Looks like I have to go back to Target to get another pair-- I love those little shoes!

Donna, is there really any other way to wear a hat??? Ross took Ryan to the mall about a month ago and bought him a white ball cap to match his own and he has Ryan wear his sideways too. I need to get a picture of the 2 of them!

Margaret M said...

I love the pumpkin patch!! Even the fake pumpkin patch can be fun as you have just demonstrated. Have a great week, dear friend. I thought of you yesterday when I was at a Starbucks in Knoxville, TN (that Starbucks is 2 hours, 20 minutes from home). Appreciate and utilize what is close by my friend! I'll be having more this week as we travel for Graeme's surgery!! Ahhhhh....it's the little things that make me happy!