The Cutest Pumpkin

Today we took a trip to Lombardi Ranch, otherwise known as The Pumpkin Patch.  Last year at this time we were in the process of packing/moving (again!), and all of our decorative items were packed up along with everything else we owned!  And, I was not about to purchase “live” decorations that would likely go bad somewhere along the way, or get “smushed” in the process, and I wasn’t about to pack a pumpkin!  Besides, Hannah wasn’t walking at that point, and a stroller – in a pumpkin patch?  You have to be kidding me!  (I saw a few brave parents who attempted it, but most of them ended up carrying their kids and using the stroller to transport the huge gourds that they picked out along the way!)

 

This year, we decided that she might be old enough to enjoy it…after all, she loves being outside, so an afternoon spent running through row after row of pumpkins seemed like a great way to spend the day.  So, we decided to let her skip her nap, and go see the “punkiss” after church.  She has only recently figured out what a pumpkin is, and was very excited about going to see one.  (I really have no idea what she was expecting, but it seemed to meet, if not exceed those expectations.)

She had a wonderful time running through the rows of pumpkins (and “apples” as she called the patch of white pumpkins we found), climbing on the hay bales, and looking at the animals.  She saw an emu (but she seemed to think that it was a giant turkey, because she kept trying to call it by saying “gobble, gobble”), a llama (adding a new word to her vocabulary!), ducks, chickens, geese, and bunnies.  There was a pen for a turkey, but we never did see him.

 

We also wandered through “Scarecrow Alley,” which was a path cut through 6-foot-high sunf lowers, and looked at the Scarecrow creations that were put together by people in the community.  Our favorite was “Scare-bucks.”

We came home with a few small pumpkins to decorate the mantle and window sills, and of course, the cutest little pumpkin of all!  

 

(To see more pictures from our Pumpkin Patch adventure, click here.)