Pumpkin Patch 2010.

Last weekend, we took Kenna on our annual trip to go find some pumpkins in the pumpkin patch. We took her to Hillridge just like last year, thinking that at this age, she would enjoy all the fun extras they have.

We started the morning in perfect fall weather by feeding the barnyard animals. Kenna has a book she loves that has helped her learn several animal sounds, and she was so proud of herself to be able to identify the animals she was seeing! The only one she had a hard time with were the goats, which she kept alternating with "neigh" and "ruff ruff"... apparently she thought they were some sort of horse/dog combination.
She loved watching the feed slide down the tube to the goats and chickens!
She made particularly good friends with this sweet little white pony. She kept leaning closer and closer until it sneezed and she jumped back about 4 feet.
And yes, I did dress her like a tiny girl farmer on purpose.
I think she could have just seen the animals for awhile and gone home, and it would have been a very successful day in her book! But there was more to see...

Like a huge plastic tube slide. Here we are waiting in line:
Next, we headed for the giant "sandbox" of corn kernels. We thought she would like this the best, but Matt plopped Kenna right inside the door and she didn't seem to thrilled to try to move. I finally climbed in to help her and figured out why: the kernels were actually about 3 feet deep and almost impossible to move in! Matt almost had to come dig us both out. (We are still finding corn kernels in funny places- like our laundry basket and dryer vent!)
Then she was getting a little on the cranky side, so we headed for the main event: the hayride out to the pumpkins. We asked an unsuspecting fellow hayrider to take a quick family picture:
and arrived at the pumpkin patch. It was so funny to see Kenna's amazement at the vast amount of pumpkins, just like last year, although she was big enough to react totally different to them this year. First, she ran around trying to sit on all the pumpkins.
Then, she started licking all the pumpkins and saying "mine."
When I told her she could pick out a pumpkin to take home, she started bringing me every single one she could lift enough to carry it. Luckily, there weren't many she could actually lift, and she was careful to inspect the bigger ones Daddy picked out.
And littlest pumpkin was also along for the ride:
Now all three pumpkins are living on our porch where she points to each one and says "my pumpum" every time she sees them. We are so happy to have our fall pumpkins!