Picking pumpkins is funny, apparently. Or maybe he's just so cold he's biting his hands to keep warm. One of the two.
Every year, Connor's preschool does a fall field trip to the orchard. This year's trip was to a different local orchard, one we hadn't been to before. With the twins in school this year, Josh had to stay home to drop them off so that Connor and I could leave early and meet up with his teachers and his class at 9 a.m. Grammy and Pappy once again met us out there for a morning of fun.
Because the orchard is about 45 minutes from our house, we were almost late. Connor was so excited last night that he didn't go to sleep until after 11. He was not at all ready to get up this morning. And Mommy can't blame him, she slept through her first alarm, too. Luckily, I had packed everything except our small cooler the night before, so we were ready to leave within minutes.
We arrived a few minutes after nine, but were still one of the first ones to arrive. After the others started to show up, the tour started with a little information from the orchard owners. Thankfully, this part was inside because it turned out colder than a lot of us had expected (or dressed for). Next we got into the line for the wagon ride behind the tractor. While we were waiting, they served fresh apple sugar doughnuts and hot apple cider. I passed on the cider, but we all enjoyed the doughnuts. And then we went around the very large orchard on the wagon ride (behind a big orange tractor, which Connor feels was the most important part).
Once we returned to the main building, it was time to walk back and pick our pumpkins. We got some garden wagons and headed out en mass so all the kids (and some of the parents) could pick their own pumpkins out of the patch. Connor also tried to sneak in an apple or two, but we caught him just in time (not part of our tour today, you see).
And last, but certainly not least, was the return to the main area. Our tour guide smartly led the group into the petting zoo first, because the big tall slides of the play area were beckoning. But we spent a little bit of time visiting the animals, mostly feeding the goats and a donkey named "Shrek," but also taking a class photo at one point. And then the true madness began.
There was hay to climb on. There were big, tall slides to conquer. And there were rope-like obstacle courses to master. It was a busy time. We eventually made our way to the very back where the wooden play sets formed a little park at the edge of the orchard. One in particular, a pirate ship, held Connor's attention for hours.
We took a break for lunch from the little deli counter inside. Connor and I had hamburgers, while Grammy opted for some chili (to help warm up on this cool day) and Pappy went with the pork barbecue. We won't mention Connor's request for ketchup and mustard and his subsequent refusal to eat the bun after realized he didn't like either of those on his hamburger (which I tried to point out before, but he chose not to listen to Mommy).
With a little bit of time left, we headed back to the pirate play set to finish out the day. We also may have picked up some apple sugar doughnuts to share with Daddy. Hopefully there's some left by the time he makes it home!