Pumpkin Patch

Last year we decided to skip a road trip to the pumpkin patch in an effort to lessen the odds of an early labor (fat load of good that did!). With no health restrictions in place this year, we packed up the girls and headed out to Sweet Berry Farms to enjoy some fall activities.

I woke up on Saturday morning with a start: "It's 7:30! Why aren't the girls awake yet?" They both slumbered peacefully until almost 8AM--an unheard of hour in our house. I should have known then that something was amiss.

After a quick breakfast and some picnic prep, we loaded up the girls and headed out to Marble Falls. We were sure to bring our double stroller, a blanket, and some picnic food.

Based on Reese's experience at the farm two years ago we were expecting lots of excitement: giggles, running, exploring giant piles of pumpkins. I even dressed the girls in matching outfits in hopes of getting some great "fall shots." Let's be honest, a big part of the pumpkin patch experience is getting adorable pictures of kids in cool weather clothes surrounded by all the accouterments of fall--leaves, pumpkins, hay, scarecrows. We decided to take pictures first, and here's a sampling of what we got:

Not exactly cute, right? Paige kept crawling out of shots to explore and put hay in her mouth, and Reese could barely be bothered to climb out of the stroller and leave her water bottle alone. Smiles were a rare commodity.

Through some MAJOR face making we got these two and called it a day with the camera:

We didn't want to push our luck so we walked by the animals and other craft options then strolled over to the zinnia fields. No requests for pony rides or to feed the animals...nothing. We sure felt like we struck out. Maybe our kids are the Scrooges of Autumn?

Just before leaving Reese finally saw something that caught her eye: the oil barrel train ride. A group of kids load up in barrels mounted with wheels and a farmer pulls them around with his tractor. Of course, though, Reese wouldn't ride alone. Which meant mommy had to buy a ticket too. Then mommy immediately went into a silent panic when I saw the sign reminding parents and children that each barrel has a 150lbs weight limit. Cue copious amounts of sucking in and thinking extra light thoughts. Who wants to be the parent who a) gets turned away from a ride and then watches their child melt down or b) breaks a ride while its full of happy children? In the end no one asked my weight (whew...) and the ride stayed in tact.

After a quick picnic we packed up the car and hit the road. When we got home we finally found the cause for our less than enthusiastic pumpkin patchers---Reese was running a 102 fever. Paige was fine, guess she's just waiting to bust out the big guns for Christmas.