We did the bulk of our party prep and cleaning yesterday (including pressure washing the carport, which was apparently bad for my back, but it looks SO MUCH BETTER), so today we headed over the river to Curry Farms for our annual pumpkin patch afternoon.
Had to snap a picture of their new Halloween shirts in our "Haunted Photobooth" before we left
James declined to go any higher than halfway, but Cora scaled this thing 3 separate times
In addition to the tire climbing wall, they also added "hamster wheel" races and a life-size Foosball game (pictured further below) that James especially loved. Cora did not like the hamster wheels as much (she's easy to knock over though, much like when she was itty-bitty and James and Eli had a fun time pushing her around in a gym barrel... of course, she liked it back then) She was especially mad when daddy took her for a big spin. And then she was DONE with it. She came right over to tattle on him too!
We totally beat daddy and Cora in the race...
Jay got off his buggy, tweaked it a bit, then got back on and zipped past me. No idea what he did to "fix" it, but I was not pleased to be moseying along while everyone else was flying...
All that racing hurt his back though, so maybe it was better that I was moseying...
(Hey Bacons, what does THIS pose remind you of?!)
Don't worry, I stayed off the bounce pillow. So did Jay...
Finally got one past daddy! He LOVED playing Foosball "soccer" with his daddy. Even more fun than the hay barn "vine" swinging!
James and daddy swung the tunnel pipes for what seemed like forever while Cora crawled back and forth, and back and forth. For some reason, she could get in and out of one side without issue, but the other side was perhaps a bigger drop to the ground because she continually begged them to stop swinging and "get me out of here!"
We tried (ineffectively) to take a family selfie laying among the pumpkins. I'll spare you the view straight up Jay's nose. James was a good sport about trying though.
We need 5 pumpkins this year, for a party decor idea...
The hay ride family selfie turned out much better than the pumpkin patch attempt...
The corn maze was extra cool this year. It was bigger/longer and contained storyboards throughout that told the tale of Spookley the Square Pumpkin. We had fun (and trouble) trying to find them all (in order), and were super impressed that James was able to read them to us, even the big/tricky words. I'm starting to think there's nothing he can't read these days... (I taught him the trick of covering up half a word if it looks too long/intimidating, and just sounding out each half, then putting them together - it's worked wonders for his confidence in working through the bigger words.)
Once mama and daddy started to peter-out (it was hot, and we'd had a pretty busy weekend already between the race and soccer and Cora's sickness and all the party prep), the kids went back and forth from the corn bin, grinding corn to feed the animals, over to the laGOATa Inn and chicken pen, while we just sat and watched.
There really is no better family adventure than heading to a place where you can just PLAY with each other and be silly and run wild! Curry Farms does such a great job at providing a rule-free (or at least, rule-minimized) family atmosphere, filled with more activities than you might have time to complete!
Before we left, James wanted a picture of himself hugging the smallest Christmas tree he could find. Dang that boy is cute...
