Yesterday Sofia’s daycare took their annual fieldtrip to the pumpkin patch. I volunteered to drive and filled my van with Sofia, two of her classmates, one of her teachers and the director of the daycare. We drove to Linder Farms and met up with all the rest of our group. After bundling up (it was about 50 degrees) we all boarded the hayride for a leisurely cruise through what else, the pumpkin patch. Linder Farms has scarecrows set up along the ride and there is a stop near their petting zoo (though we didn’t partake in the petting) where they have animals from the ordinary: goats, sheep and a miniature horse to the exotic: a zebra, a camel and a llama.
After the hayride the kids got to pick their pumpkin. Sofia was kind of sleepy by this time and I don’t think she enjoyed the process as much as she would have had she been perky awake. I also think that next year, when she’s bigger and can more easily navigate the rough terrain of the pumpkin patch she will have more fun. Despite all of that, she found a great pumpkin and even carried it around for a while. The rest of the time I got to carry her and the pumpkin!
From the pumpkin patch we moved onto the Straw Bale Maze. If you’re 3′ tall or shorter this is a really cool thing. It’s like the big cornfield maze, but if you jump up or look to the edge you can still see your mom, which is very reassuring for the novice maze goers. Sofia wasn’t into walking through the maze. But I didn’t want her to miss out so I carried her through – which definitely made it lose most of its mystery as she saw it from the top. But, at least she had the experience.
We followed our maze experience up with a picnic lunch. Despite a minor meltdown when I gave Sofia’s classmate half of her sandwich (that she wasn’t eating or going to eat) it was pretty uneventful and a great segue into naptime. The Linder Farm dog happily lapped up spilled milk and munched little pieces of shredded sandwich that the kids dropped. Some of the older kids moved onto a coloring project but we loaded up and headed back to the center. The three littlest passengers, and maybe Ms. Dora, all crashed out on the drive back to school. Waiting for them (except for Dora) were their nap beds and blankets. It was a great trip!
Jigglebumps 