Punkinista

It seems we have lots of autumn traditions around our house - and not just raking leaves, getting out decs, and stuffing our faces with candy corn.  In addition to going to Colorado Springs (a newly discovered "tradition"), we also seem to find our way to Berry Patch Farms each and every fall.

Because of our insanely busy October (no joke, it was insane.  And busy.), we didn't make it to Berry Patch Farms until what most would consider the last weekend of Punkin' Season - two days before Halloween (I think even Berry Patch considers it the last weekend).  And because of all that, we didn't get to be picky about the weather the weekend we trudged out in muddy fields (it's not like the girls cared, I'm probably the only one upset about the mud still caked on my boots :)

In previous years, Punkin' Sitting has been the main pumpkin attraction:

Stop trying to get my attention.  I am NOT going to look at you fools.

This year, however, a new trend emerged:  Punkin' Pickin'-Up.

Because she comes from who she comes from, she had to try to pick up the BIGGEST pumpkin possible.  It's healthy competitive spirit, right?

Unfortunately, Ellery isn't as adept at this task as her big sister is (which could be the whole reason why it became this year's Big Thing to do).

You can kinda see in her little profile how hard she's trying to pick up that punkin!

And then, of course, we had the Punkin Fight.

Ellery canNOT hold that pumpkin - it's as big as her torso, and probably half her weight.  But she's scrappy, that one.

Saturdays at Berry Patch are actually Fall Festival days, so there was lots of stuff besides Punkin Sittin'/Pickin'-Up/Fightin' to do.  For instance, a hayride:

Honestly, how do you get kids to look at the *$%#ing camera?

 ...which led to a hay maze:

Super easy when you're a giant who can see over everything (ergo, taller than 3 feet).

Not so easy when you're this height.  "Where do I go?!?!?!?"

Big Sass leads the charge...

...and finds the end!

*of note:  I once went to a Maize Maze in eastern Iowa with some friends in college, and we got the record for LONGEST time to get out.  We were smart girls, too.  Mazes are tricky! 

Once you found your way to the end of the maze, it was story time in a little hut:

It's playground equipment built to look like a hut, still super cute, as was the little old lady dressed up like a prairie girl who read us a story about a scarecrow :)

Once back to the main grounds, we did some arts & crafts:

Super-cute project.  Super-lame glue sticks.

 And even tried our hand at punkin' bowling:

Strike or gutterball? :)

Who needs a punkin when you can just stand 'em up, knock 'em down?  STRIKE!

  
We did learn a few things about being out on the farm, though, that we didn't know prior to this trip - namely, that Tanner Kay Hurliman is a CITY girl, not a farm girl.  Sure, she doesn't mind a good Punkin' Pickin'-Up party, hayride, hay maze, or punkin' bowling expedition, but get her near farm animals and she's gonna squeal.

Ellery would like to feed her food to the chickens instead of eat it herself.  "Chicky!!!"

Tanner cowers away in fear every time a chicken got close - which was often, considering we were the only ones eating lunch out there, and they definitely wanted our crumbs (and Ellery wanted to feed them, so ya, they liked our table).

Ellery actually chases Bacon Bits, the pot-bellied pig, to pet him.  Tanner screamed bloody murder when he sniffed her feet.

So, for all you Flora peeps who think she'd fare well as a Southern Illinois gal, you may have to reconsider.

Before we left the farm, we had one last fun activity - Pinata!

Tanner gets a good whack.

Ellery takes her turn with the stick.

In the end, a teenage girl beat the crap out of it, and the candy flew.  Of course my shy-gal Tanner was too timid to run in and get too much - but let's be honest, it doesn't hurt my feelings that we had LESS candy to fight about not eating on the way home.

(Oh, come on.  Stop looking at me that way.  They each got smarties to chomp on for the ride home).  

Happy Pumpkining! :)