Pumpkin Patch

A few Fridays ago, B's company, AJE, was having family day at Ganyard Farms which is a pumpkin patch near Durham.  B was planning to take the kids and asked if I would be able to join them.  Since I have planning at the end of the day, I finished all my work and left school about 30 minutes early.  I rarely leave school early, but this was a worthwhile exception. 

We met a few of B's coworkers with their children around 2:15.  One nice thing about AJE's socials and get-togethers is they always pay.  Going to pumpkin patches around here is expensive.  It was a lot of fun though.  When we fist got there, the kids headed straight for the tunnel slide.  You had to climb up some big bales of hay to the slide and then rode down the tunnel.  Beside the slide was a tunnel that just ran flat along the ground, and W spent most of his time there. 

After playing around the tunnels, we went for a hay ride.  The hayride was fun, just hot.  The hayride ended near the pumpkin patch so we decided to look around for our pumpkins.  R & A got to pick their own and our only rule was they had to be able to hold them.  So nothing real big. I didn't know pumpkins were prickly.  The 'stem' has prickers around it, which made it difficult to hold by the stem.  R & A had to hold their pumpkins from the bottom.  They picked really cute pumpkins for their sizes!

Before leaving, we played in the kernel pit.  It was under a tent that provided some much needed shade, and all the kernels were very cool to the touch.  I believe the kids would have stayed in for a lot longer, but since it was 3:30 and they hadn't had a nap, we knew that it was time to leave.  We had corn everywhere though!  We found some in our washer/dryer after washing all their clothes.  W even had kernels in his diaper!  It was such a fun family event and I'm glad I left school early to go.