The Pumpkin Patch

Today Zach and I dropped Drew off at Grandma Linda's and headed out to the pumpkin patch with some of the kids from his preschool class and their parents.  It was a lot of fun.  I enjoyed getting to meet some of the parents and the kids, and it was nice to be able to put some names with faces, especially the kids.  We had beautiful weather, which was great.  

We started out with feeding the goats, which Zach was not afraid to do.

Then we got to ride behind the tractor out to the pumpkin patch.  Zach picked out this wonderful Cinderella pumpkin (that's really what it's called).

After we rode back to the barnyard, we went into the play area, which has lots of fun activities for kids.  

Here's Zach on top of some hay bales.  Or maybe it's straw, but I think it's hay.  I've lived in Iowa for 12 years now, basically, and I still don't know the difference between hay and straw.

Zach and Abby were a perfect match on the teeter-totter.

Zach rode on the little tractors, climbed on a huge fallen tree, went down the big slide, went int he hay bale maze, and played in the corn kernel bin.  Then we stopped by the bunny area.  On weekends there are tons of kids in there holding the bunnies and petting them, but today nobody was in there.  I wasn't sure if we could go in or not, but it wasn't locked, so we went in.  I was a little nervous for Zach because there was a sign by the gate that said, "Little Bunny Foo-Foo might decide to bite you," or something like that.  I know lots of kids go in there, though, so I decided to let Zach do it.  I figured if he got bit, we'd just deal with it.  Great parenting, huh?  Anyway, no biting bunnies this day!  A couple of those bunnies were HUGE!  The biggest one went into its house and didn't really feel like being petted, but here's a picture of Zach petting a different big one.  All the bunnies were really sweet.  In true Zach form, he leaned down to kiss one.  Ugh.  I tried to discourage that from happening again.

Finally we ate lunch and headed out, but not before we found some really awesome leaves and Zach climbed on one of the tractors.  Then it was time to go pick up Drew from Grandma's house and get home for naps.

All in all, it was a really nice day.  It was fun to give Zach some one-on-one time, too, and to not be so constrained by Drew's napping schedule.  We might go back to the pumpkin patch this weekend with Mike and Drew, so it was good to get this visit in beforehand in case there are tons of people and not as much time available on Sunday.