Beautiful Fall Day

October is flying by and there is so much we want to do as a family before fall is over.  Several weeks ago Mason started obsessing over pumpkins.  He seems to associate Clemson/Va Tech t-shirts with the pumpkin patch.  Maybe it is because both schools have orange as one of their team colors.  Whatever the reason, Mason has talked about pumpkins, pointed them out on television, and counted and colored them as part of his school work.  They are important to him.  Each day he has asked if we were going to the pumpkin patch.  I wish I could capture the excitement in his voice when he asks.  He is a very passionate little boy.  Even though our October is extremely busy...today Mason got his wish.

Last year we discovered Hall Family Farms when looking for a different pumpkin patch.  We were impressed by their hay ride and duck race game.  While chatting with the owners we were happy to learn that they were Va. Tech and Clemson grads.  It can't get much better than that.

We headed back to Hall Family Farm and were not disappointed!  They have added a 2 mile corn maze that kept us lost for over an hour.  We finally took a short-cut (aka we cheated) and found our way out.  I am discourage that this was the parting memory from the corn maze, but after an hour with a 4 year old that missed his nap, we were exhausted.   

One of the coolest thing about the corn maze were the mail boxes.  Through out the maze there were mail boxes with puzzle pieces to a map.  Find all the pieces, solve the puzzle and you will find your way out.  We found half the pieces, but never the coveted middle that we needed to solve the maze.  Here are a few pictures of the boys "checking the mail".

 

I have never seen corn grow this tall.  Look at this picture of David next to the corn.  He said it felt being in a jungle of bamboo.

Once we made our way out...it was on to slushies and candy.  The slushies were made from fresh strawberries (I am assuming left over from the spring/summer strawberry season).  Then it was off to the hayride.  This was one of my favorite parts of the day.  We rode while listening to Halloween classics like "Monster Mash", "Ghostbusters" and "Thriller".  Additionally, we participated in a scavenger hunt of items through-out the ride.  The only things we could not find was a humming bird.

Our day concluded with the duck races. You pump the water to get your duck to the other side before your opponent. 

Go! Go! Go!

Mason is in the lead.

Logan, our engineer, is trying to figure it out.  This is his "light bulb" moment.

 I am sure you are asking the obvious question.  What about the pumpkins?  Who goes to the pumpkin patch and doesn't get a pumpkin?  After dropping $50 bucks on corn mazes, hay rides and slushies, the Kerstiens' family decided that the Walmart pumpkins were fine with us.  Here are the boys posing with the pumpkins.

I hope you enjoyed our beautiful fall day.  In addition to the pumpkin patch we had a soccer game and a neighborhood fall party.  We are tired and looking forward to our day of rest tomorrow.

Happy Fall!!!

DMLCM