Pumpkins!

Pumpkin patches are a rare fall commodity in the bay area, CA. I do believe they actually grow plenty of pumpkins around here, but mostly north and south of us. Thus, when you look up pumpkin patches in the area, you really get pumpkin piles - places where pumpkins have been gathered for us to 'pick', but not pumpkins anywhere near the vine. I'm not complaining though, we had a great time pumpkin 'picking'. This year we went to the Perry Farm Pumpkin Patch. The Mostek's came with us and we had a good time first picnicking, then exploring the hay pyramid and corn maze, then trying to find the perfect pumpkin.

Hay pyramid

Whew! Made it!

Owen made it too!

Corn maze - sadly about as tall as corn gets in CA

Of course, they had some other fun things to do. Colin's favorite thing was the tractor ride. A tractor pulled a wagon with hay around the farm, stopping occasionally to point out features of the farm or to try pumpkin seeds. I really enjoyed the family farm aspect of Perry's, and I liked the fact that they were still a 'working' farm with crops. They are an organic farm (would you expect anything else in CA) and it was interesting to see what they could do without pesticides. They also had some other things to explore, like a stationary tractor and a huge pumpkin.

Colin was very patient waiting for his turn - he really wanted to ride the tractor!

Driving the tractor

That's a big pumpkin!

On the tractor ride!

Mosteks enjoying the ride

Of course, once you have pumpkins, you have to carve them! Colin was insistent that all the pumpkins were carved with ghosts ("ghosts go woo-oooo"). This year he was mostly interested in the carving process - ok, mostly the knives. He got to help us cut the lids and even carve some of the ghosts! He didn't really care for the pumpkin insides, saying they were slimey, but he did touch and explore it a little. I do have to say that carving pumpkins outside in the lawn is much easier to clean up than worrying about the carpet! (Don't worry about Colin's outfit - we're potty training and he doesn't have accidents when he isn't wearing pants, so.... he's mostly naked from the waist down when we are at home.)

Alright, time to sign off for now. We are looking forward to my parents visiting this week (beginning Wednesday) and for Halloween on Thursday! Woo-ooooo!