Birth Blessings Childbirth: Oma's Pumpkin Patch

The last few years I visited Bates Nut Farm with my family in October. This year Jackson went on his first school field trip there but as a family we went to Oma's Pumpkin Patch in Lakeside. Why go 40 minutes away from home? My crazy sister in law talked me into doing the "Pumpkin Patch 5k" - Ok, she didn't have to twist my arm... but it's fun to blame her after the fact. I figured since we'd already be there for the race we could just make it our yearly pumpkin patch trip. All well and fine if my husband didn't have to work that morning/afternoon. So I took the kiddos all by myself... the 5k was rough with the stroller (to say the least) but the patch was lots of fun.

we saw some cool little creatures

and some strange ones too

Owen decided to do a little running after the race

We saw lots of cows. Big cows, pregnant cows, and baby cows. Even cows eating fresh pumpkin!

Oma's is a dairy farm year round so I assume that's why they have these instructional cow milking stations set up. Complete with squeezable nipples and buckets to catch the water. The boys were a little confused... where's the milk?????

mmmmmoooooooooo

Aaahhh, finally the pumpkins!

The boys were afraid of the scarecrow - there goes that photo op. But they loved to climb on the pumpkins. Go figure - boys climbing?

$6 each kid (and I was free) got us 2 waters, 2 pumpkins, tractor hay ride, and access to all of the games/activites. It turned out to be much more affordable than Bates.
My little guys picked out their own pumpkins and carried them to the stroller. Sniff, sniff. They are going to college!

"OH, so heaby!" Owen says as he tries to pick up a big one. There were sweet old rigs all around the place.

Of course they had to sit on the tractor and pull the levers. Beep Beep!

This was fun - a straw maze made from hay bales. Jackson was shockingly very timid at first but after he saw Owen charge it, he went for it.
There were kids running around having a great time inside.

After we played a bit, we picked up our waters and went for a relaxing ride on the tractor. Look at this huge rig!

the tires were as big as me

The boys noticed and commented on the "stinky" farm, but laughed it off. They really enjoyed the tractor ride and beautiful scenery.

Next up: cotton seed mountain. This was a first for me. I've never seen cotton seeds like this!

It was like watching people sled down a snow bank... but with cotton. It was very interesting. The kids had a great time.

There were many other activities available but we were crunched for time (had to get to a 3 year old birthday party) so only did a few more before taking off around 11:15am.

The boys went on the swings...