Slapout Pumpkin Patch

So there we were.....Hal and I....leading a caravan of cars on our way to Slapout for a Sunday school class pumpkin patch trip that I'd planned earlier in the week. We. Were. Excited. We pulled over across from Grandma Ida's house in May in a parking lot to meet up with Riley who had been hunting that morning. I got out of the car to let him in the driver's seat when all of a sudden....that sound...that face....that horrifying look that says "I'm about to blow chunks all over your car, mom." And she did. I'm not certain who was more disappointed. She was crying for the pumpkin patch in between throwing up while I went from car to car telling our friends that we wouldn't be able to go along for the trip. Our friends and their kiddos continued on the hour long drive for an afternoon of fun. The minute we returned home things were back to normal....just a bit sluggish but no sickness for the rest of the day. She was well for Sunday school the next morning so we went to church and then had plans to get our pumpkin patch fix that afternoon. As we made the hour long drive out there I noticed Hallie looking a bit pale toward the end of our drive. Then the icky-ness ramped up once we got out of the car. She clung to us and kept saying how tired she was. At that point I was beginning to think she had some strange "pumpkin patch" sickness. We carried her through the hay bale maze and by the time we finished with that a bit of her pizzazz returned once she saw this little dude....

She didn't quite know what to think about the donkey. In fact she said he was "big and ugly".....

She was a big brave girl and took a ride on Mr. Pony despite some initial fear....

Fear about pulling his hair....

Sweet girl was concerned that she was hurting his hair

The bravery ramped up another notch once she let me toss her up on the big horse with daddy....

What a natural

All signs of sickness vanished once she took a dip in the big corn box. Fun fun fun!

We will definitely be back next year to this patch!

I think we caught the tail end of the pumpkin supply but Hal didn't notice....she was on a serious hunt for a mini green pumpkin....

"Dis one is too big."

Searching and searching....

"Geen pumpkin, where are you?"

Hmmm, better phone the owner to find out where the green ones are....

Instead of a mini green one we ended up with a sad looking, er, I mean beautiful gray flat pumpkin. She marches to the beat of her own drum and that's just the way we like it. Gray pumpkins and all!

On our way to the car she took a peek at the actual patch and we studied how the pumpkins grew on the vine......

All of the fun did her in but the bright-eyed gal had a smile on her face nonetheless on our way home.....