Tuesday, October 16, 2007

A pumpkinning we will go

Can you tell the company owner is out of the office? It is amazing how much blogging you can do when you are not in a two hour meeting every day.

Saturday Husband and I drove the Dukes out to the pumpkin patch to pick some punkins for Halloween. (K's- if you read this: I forgot you were going out of town last weekend and by the time I remembered Miss D was too excited about it to cancel.)

You might be surprised at the variety of today's pumpkin patch experience. Many offer: inflatable slides! playground! additional produce and/or canned/jarred and baked goods! hayrides! corn maze! shows! face painting! I guess the thinking is that if I am going to make the hour + drive out of the city to spend the 10 mins it will take to pick a pumpkin at $.35 a pound- you better make it worth my while. The pricing ranges from a $10-$6 entrance fees (plus you pay for your pumpkin) Or free but pay for the "attractions" individually.

In the end we settled on Butterprint Farm. While it had many of the bells and whistles it seemed at it's core to promise a humble, nature-centered experience which included what I most wanted Miss Dukes to enjoy: picking a pumpkin directly off the vine.

Butterprint did not disappoint. Even though there appeared to be a fair amount of visitors, the farm definitely had a family-run feel. Your $6 entrance fee (Kids under 3 for free!) includes a free hayride out to the pumpkin patch, entrance to corn maze (we passed), petting zoo, free puppet show and free music as well as corn milling demonstration. A sweet older lady painted a pumpkin on Miss D's cheek for a $1 and she feasted on a $.25 blackberry-flavored honey stick.

Oddly, although Miss D seemed thrilled to be there- she was in kind of a "no" mood. She turned down feeding the goats, feeling the milled corn and stated that she did not want to go on the hayride. (But we made her because that was the only way to get to the pumpkins) She did have a grand time marching through the pumpkins and looking for a little one just for her. (We also walked away with a white one for Mama and a BIG one for Dada) All in all she declared it was SO MUCH FUN. And the purple balloon she received at the Applebees we stopped out on the way home was just icing on the cake.

This is the first year Miss D is old enough to really grok the holidays and I have to say it makes it SO MUCH FUN! Next weekend- we carve.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a great time was had by all!! Loved your descriptions of the event, except I had to look up grok! I don't think I have ever heard that word before.

Lakeview Coffee Joe said...

Wow! That sounds awesome. And so good to have you blogging regularly! Maybe we should whack the owner??

stef said...

Mom-

How did you miss reading stranger in a strange land? Dad owned it! (I think)

Erin said...

Sounds like a blast! I'm going pumpkin-picking and corn-mazing this weekend and I'm so excited! So cool that you guys got to pick pumpkins off the vine...very Thomas Keller. ;)

Anonymous said...

Absolutely we have (or had) Stranger in a Strange Land but Mom was never a big si-fi fan.

Anonymous said...

Good to hear Miss D enjoyed the pumpkins. We're planning on taking C this weekend. Here's to hoping the "no mood" stays at home.