Pumpkin Patch

Beautiful Kinsey Family Farm. Mental note: come back at Christmas for a tree.

Yesterday we introduced ourselves to Kinsey Family Farm. It was a beautiful, warm fall day and we decided spontaneously to visit a pumpkin patch. Visiting a pumpkin patch is one of those things I felt like I had to do now that we have a child. I never grew up making this traditional October pilgrimage, so it's never been a big deal to me. But it seems to be a thing you do with your kids, so gosh darn it, I was going to do it with mine.

A pumpkin for my Pumpkin!

Piles 'o pumpkins.

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The variety of pumpkins was really quite astonishing. I had no idea they came in white, green, or striped.

One of the things I appreciated about this particular pumpkin patch is that it cost us nothing to get in, probably because there wasn't a corn maze or face painting or other hoopla. But that suited us fine, since Violet chose this particular outing to assert her independence. Sure, there was a two-dollar hay ride, but she wanted nothing to do with it. If we wanted her to pet the goats, she insisted on going the opposite way. She wanted in the wagon, then out, then she decided to lay on the ground and refuse to budge. So it's just as well that the upfront cost was zero and we could leave whenever we needed to without feeling conned out of any fees.

Pumpkin hugger.

Plaid shirt and overalls. Yes, they dressed the part.

Heading towards the animals. How perfect is this day?!

Violet kept her distance from the animals.

I've started realizing that there just aren't that many pictures of me and Violet... I'm always the one behind the camera! Then finally seeing some pictures of the two of us make me realize, we might be ready for a camera upgrade. I know lots of you have invested in the fancy cameras, and Matt was even planning to get me one this year until I nixed the idea. I love the results, I just can't imagine lugging a big camera like that around when I have my little convenient pocket-sized point-and-click. What do you guys think? Are they worth the investment? Do you use your pricey one as much as your old one? Anyway, off topic.

How about this one?

Good choice!

So many pumpkins, so little Violet.

Sitting pretty.

So there you have it, our first family trip to a pumpkin patch. We came home with two pumpkin pie pumpkins (we'll see how that turns out), a mini pumpkin for Violet, and a jar of local honey (I've heard it will help soothe my throat/voice). It was fun, low-key, and I can totally see us coming back here one day. In fact, Matt and I have pretty much decided to make a return visit in December for a tree. We've always wanted to do the whole walk into the woods and chop down your tree thing, and this is the kind of laid-back farm where I think we could accomplish that goal.

It's funny, I was all prepared to be totally stressed out this weekend, with grades due and conferences coming up. But I got a lot done on Friday, finished up a few things here and there, and actually managed to enjoy myself. I'm totally going to credit God with giving me peace and the ability to put distractions away and really concentrate on my family. Hopefully this week will go well, or I'll wonder if I should have spent more time holed up in front of my computer. But for right now, I'm really thankful for a wonderful, relaxing weekend that reminded me of the many blessings in my life - I have an awesome husband, a sweet little girl, we're happy and healthy, the sun is shining, all's right with the world.