Plumper Pumpkin Adventure

Richard had a very long weekend. There was a huge project at Tek that has been in the works for about a year now and this was the weekend it was implemented. Richard worked most of the weekend on it, including many hours in the middle of the night. Then after a couple hours of sleep it was time for him to work some more. We did not see a lot of him and he was very tired when we did! We missed him! Now he has taken a part time job and for a while, we will not see very much of him at all! I appreciate the sacrifice he is making for our family and for me so I can continue with my classes.

Yesterday Richard was home by 3pm, so we took the little ones out to the Plumper Pumpkin Patch! We had never been there, but it had been recommended to me by several people, so we decided to give it a try. It was a beautiful afternoon! Being a Monday, there was hardly anyone there, which was nice. They have two hay bale mazes, one is inside a big barn so its dark and spooky and has fun tunnels and a slide to go down. The kids enjoyed going through them over and over and over again! There were also several large pipe slides, a couple of bowling lanes and a water pump ducky float challenge, which Joseph loved. There were tons of photo opportunities, which I loved and there were lots of farm animals which Annalina LOVED, and Richard was not at work, which he really loved! While we were watching the baby calves(there were 7) the farmer came out to bottle feed them milk. He asked for helpers and Annalina and a couple of other kids were able to feed the cows. Annalina was in heaven! I didn't get photos of this but Richard did make a small video of it. It was fun to watch. She told the farmer she was going to be a veterinarian and he told her about all the animals she would need to learn about. She was thrilled to have such a fun conversation with the keeper of the animals!

He looks far too comfortable in this photo....
Perhaps I need to invest in one of these?Annalina spent a lot of time with this particular cow. She wanted to keep it company since it was all alone laying in the corner of the pen. She was worried that it might feel bad that the other animals weren't near it. There were so many fun activities to do, but she was happiest with the animals and spent most of her time with them!This was the funniest thing. This big metal bridge goes between two different pens. Richard asked why it was there and the farmer told us the goats go back and forth on it. So he lured them up with some feed and they wandered across, then stayed up there for a while, probably playing king of the barnyard or something. It was pretty funny to watch!
There were four of these pumps set up next to each other. The kids had to pump as fast as they could to send the ducky down river to the trough at the end. Joseph had trouble at first, but after daddy showed him how to do it, he did it over and over and over again! The idea is to race them, but he was more than happy to just make the ducks go on his own!