Pumpkin Patch and Halloween

Random fact:  I love pumpkin patches.  I think it's because I love fall, and a pumpkin patch is quintessentially fall!  Now that we have Ava, I was pretty excited for our first annual pumpkin patch trip. Bonus:  we live in Iowa where the pumpkin patches are legit.  Not to hate on Texas, but in Texas, a pumpkin patch usually consists of hundreds of pumpkins in a church parking lot.  Here in Iowa, the pumpkins are actually attached to the ground on vines.  I know - crazy.  We went to a pumpkin patch called Pride of the Wapsi in Long Grove, Iowa with our church missional community.  It was way out in the country, and we had to stop for deer on the way, making it more authentic, in my opinion!  There were a ton of games and fun things to do for older kids, but Ava was able to do a few things!  I can't wait to take her back when she's older.  The highlight for me was riding the tractor way out to the pumpkin patch and picking out our pumpkins.  It was pretty fun and met all of my pumpkin patch expectations.

Ava loved petting the lambs.  This was her second petting zoo, and she loves animals!

Instead of a sandbox, they had a corn box.  Obviously.  We spent 2.5 seconds in here because I bet you can guess what she tried to do with the corn...

Here we are riding through the cornfield to the pumpkin patch!  (It was REALLY cold and REALLY windy!)

Ava and I with our mama pumpkin, daddy pumpkin, and baby pumpkin.

This was the only ride Ava could enjoy.  It was a snug fit with both of us in there, but we worked it out :-)  These barrels were pulled by a tractor.  She LOVED it.

This was our first Halloween in a trick-or-treating neighborhood.  Unfortunately, it was freezing cold, raining, and windy!  We still took our little pumpkin to a few houses around us to say hi to the neighbors.  We gave out fun toys and chocolate covered pretzels to the 10 houses nearest us.  Then we parked ourselves in our garage with a big bowl of candy, blankets, and hot apple cider, which was a huge hit on the cold night.  Our goal was to meet our neighbors, reintroduce ourselves, and bless the freezing cold parents with a hot drink.  We had a great time, but I do hope the weather is better next year!