I was so excited to visit the Pumpkin Patch. That place is HUGE. It's at the Live Oak Christmas Tree Farm - however, there aren't Christmas trees anymore. So the entire place was pumpkins, hay rides, corn maze, petting zoo, bouncers, gift shop, snacks, picnic tables. It was a pretty awesome outing.
The challenge for me, once again was to try to get a pic of the girls together. Once again, that didn't really go too well. The other challenge was trying to shoot my camera in manual all day. Sydney ran around so much that one second she was in the shade of trees, and the next moment she was out in the bright sunshine. In 2 hours I took 175 pics. I think I got a couple pretty decent ones.
I love this pic of Sydney. She was in the shade, and the background behind her was bright sunlight, so I'm not sure how I feel about the background being so blown out - but really it was just more chain link fence and who really wants to see that anyway.
The Petting Zoo:
Finally! Bug is old enough to not flip out entirely when entering a petting zoo. She loved going in the big pen with all the goats, sheep, and turkeys running around. She especially liked the baby goats that were about knee-to-waist high compared to her. She really wasn't fond of the big goats that were as tall as she was. One snuck up beside her when she was petting "baby goat" and caught her off-guard and scared the crap out of her for a moment. Once she regained composure she scolded big goat: "No big goat! Big trouble!"
Nana kept a close hand on Bug in the pen at all times. Never knew when a big one would run up to her:
(Disclaimer: Annabelle isn't around in any of the petting zoo pics since she was taking a nice long nap in her carrier)
Baby Goat was kind enough to pose for a picture too:
Then we went over to the bird area. We saw peacocks, chickens, and lots of really pretty birds that I have no clue what they were.
The chickens were in a coop that looked like a big barn. It had "window" on the sides to see in, and the ends were open (fenced, but open). Buggy spent a lot of time watching the chickens. Or "Chickie Nuggets" as she called them. (This was were I spent a lot of time adjusting the ISO on my camera as she bounded from shade to sun to shade to sun. Over and over and over - so some pics are a little too blown out)
Looking in the back end:
watching through a window on the side:
I took this pic looking through the barn/coop to Bug who was looking in a window on the opposite side:
Here she is at the front of the coop (it had a little fenced yard area), doing more chicken watching: (in the background you can see the grassy mound of the bunny area. However, all the bunnies were down inside the tunnels and wouldn't come out for us - we could see them hopping around down in there)
This is my absolute FAVORITE picture of the day, possibly of the year. This pic is SOOC (straight out of camera)! I didn't need to do anything to it, and I love it. Aren't her eyes just beautiful? And I love the errant, non-curly strand of hair hanging down on her shoulder.
After leaving the petting zoo and washing our hands, we wandered and found a "hay castle". Basically just stacked tiered hay that could be climbed all over, with flags on top. I figured that would be a great place to plop both kids down and try to get a "together" pic - since Annabelle was now awake (or "bake" as Sydney calls it).
When you tell Bug to sit next to her sister, she will do so but generally leaves a bit too much space between the 2 of them to get a good picture. So I have to tell her to lean over and give Annabelle a hug. Poor Annabelle then gets practically strangled:
This one is just pure awesome. Too funny:
A typical Annabelle "face". In this pic, to me she resembles my recently passed grandmother, Babcia. Something about the mouth.
A fantastic showing of Annabelle's entire ridiculous outfit. Mommy loves it. :)
Not sure what Buggy was up to here, but whatever it was, she's still too cute:
Here's a shot of when I finally remembered to get the bow on Annabelle's head, to counterbalance that serious lack of hair:
Uh oh. Now she noticed that she's wearing ridiculous tights with a built-in tutu. I'm sure she'll rebel over this in about 14 years.
After way too many pics on the lower levels of the hay castle - Sydney climbed to a flag on the top with her daddy:
And then she found it to be lots of fun to have her daddy help her "jump" down every level. Over and over and over.
It was an absolutely stunning day. Look at that blue sky! And those mountains that I miss so much living at the bottom of. They are so pretty (the 9 months out of the year when you can see them that is...not so much in the summer when they disappear behind smog)
Looking in the back end:
watching through a window on the side:
I took this pic looking through the barn/coop to Bug who was looking in a window on the opposite side:
Here she is at the front of the coop (it had a little fenced yard area), doing more chicken watching: (in the background you can see the grassy mound of the bunny area. However, all the bunnies were down inside the tunnels and wouldn't come out for us - we could see them hopping around down in there)
This is my absolute FAVORITE picture of the day, possibly of the year. This pic is SOOC (straight out of camera)! I didn't need to do anything to it, and I love it. Aren't her eyes just beautiful? And I love the errant, non-curly strand of hair hanging down on her shoulder.
After leaving the petting zoo and washing our hands, we wandered and found a "hay castle". Basically just stacked tiered hay that could be climbed all over, with flags on top. I figured that would be a great place to plop both kids down and try to get a "together" pic - since Annabelle was now awake (or "bake" as Sydney calls it).
When you tell Bug to sit next to her sister, she will do so but generally leaves a bit too much space between the 2 of them to get a good picture. So I have to tell her to lean over and give Annabelle a hug. Poor Annabelle then gets practically strangled:
This one is just pure awesome. Too funny:
A typical Annabelle "face". In this pic, to me she resembles my recently passed grandmother, Babcia. Something about the mouth.
A fantastic showing of Annabelle's entire ridiculous outfit. Mommy loves it. :)
Not sure what Buggy was up to here, but whatever it was, she's still too cute:
Here's a shot of when I finally remembered to get the bow on Annabelle's head, to counterbalance that serious lack of hair:
Uh oh. Now she noticed that she's wearing ridiculous tights with a built-in tutu. I'm sure she'll rebel over this in about 14 years.
After way too many pics on the lower levels of the hay castle - Sydney climbed to a flag on the top with her daddy:
And then she found it to be lots of fun to have her daddy help her "jump" down every level. Over and over and over.
It was an absolutely stunning day. Look at that blue sky! And those mountains that I miss so much living at the bottom of. They are so pretty (the 9 months out of the year when you can see them that is...not so much in the summer when they disappear behind smog)
here walking away are Tia Steffy (Bug calls her Steppy), Dana, and Nana:
Looking the other direction, you can see big giant sunflowers lining the perimeter of the corn maze:
We found an area specifically set up for picture taking. Pumpkins, gourds, indian corn, and hay. However, the sun was super bright overhead and my pictures were not so great with shadowy faces. Plus, Bug wasn't cooperating with posing with her sister.
Looking the other direction, you can see big giant sunflowers lining the perimeter of the corn maze:
We found an area specifically set up for picture taking. Pumpkins, gourds, indian corn, and hay. However, the sun was super bright overhead and my pictures were not so great with shadowy faces. Plus, Bug wasn't cooperating with posing with her sister.
Here is a pic of Buggy with THREE orange pumpkins. Oh wait, make that 2 pumpkins and ONE Annabelle:
Shadows on the face but still stinkin cute!
Just inside the entrance to the corn maze. Or as I'm lovingly calling it "Corn Maze Fiasco 2011".
My mom ponied up the $25 worth of tickets to get us all in (D, Me, Steffy, mom, and Sydney - Belle was free). They told us that there were 4 stations hidden in the maze and to collect the clues from them. We would get a prize at the end.
Shadows on the face but still stinkin cute!
Just inside the entrance to the corn maze. Or as I'm lovingly calling it "Corn Maze Fiasco 2011".
My mom ponied up the $25 worth of tickets to get us all in (D, Me, Steffy, mom, and Sydney - Belle was free). They told us that there were 4 stations hidden in the maze and to collect the clues from them. We would get a prize at the end. Yeah. After about 35 minutes of wandering around corn and only finding one clue, I was getting hot, tired, and miserable. Loads of fun that was. We decide that if we pass the exit again we would just bail - however, we found clue #2 soon after. Then thankfully found the exit and got our butts out of there (Annabelle napped some more). They still gave us the "prize" anyway. Neon orange "Pumpkin Patch" rubber bracelets. Yippee!
Here is D turning a corner in the crazy corn. You can see Buggy looks thrilled to be there:
more corn wandering:
While in the never ending corn maze, Sydney asked several times if she could go in the "jumper" a Mickey Mouse bounce house/obstacle thing. So after we were out of the maze, I let Dana take her over to the Jumper while I grabbed a shaved ice. Love that you could do your own syrup. I chose a blue raspberry/wild cherry combination
Buggy had SO much fun in the jumper! This is totally her "thing". I put D on picture taking duty (over the top of the meshy sides), while I stayed in the shade enjoying my flavored ice. D took more pics than this but approx. 9 out of 10 were of Bug sitting in the jumper trying to pull off her socks. LOL.
I noticed that it was time for the jumper to be done when I heard a lot of crying and looked over to see parents collecting unhappy children who didn't want to be done. I kept looking around for Dana and Sydney. Didn't see them. Where was Sydney? Then I saw her. Still running around in the jumper being chased by what I would call a "jumper attendant". This poor early 20's type boy was trying to corral my child who was having way too much fun running away from him. LOL. Bug was the last child out of the Jumper.
Here is D turning a corner in the crazy corn. You can see Buggy looks thrilled to be there:
more corn wandering:
While in the never ending corn maze, Sydney asked several times if she could go in the "jumper" a Mickey Mouse bounce house/obstacle thing. So after we were out of the maze, I let Dana take her over to the Jumper while I grabbed a shaved ice. Love that you could do your own syrup. I chose a blue raspberry/wild cherry combination
Buggy had SO much fun in the jumper! This is totally her "thing". I put D on picture taking duty (over the top of the meshy sides), while I stayed in the shade enjoying my flavored ice. D took more pics than this but approx. 9 out of 10 were of Bug sitting in the jumper trying to pull off her socks. LOL.
I noticed that it was time for the jumper to be done when I heard a lot of crying and looked over to see parents collecting unhappy children who didn't want to be done. I kept looking around for Dana and Sydney. Didn't see them. Where was Sydney? Then I saw her. Still running around in the jumper being chased by what I would call a "jumper attendant". This poor early 20's type boy was trying to corral my child who was having way too much fun running away from him. LOL. Bug was the last child out of the Jumper.All in all we had a blast at the Pumpkin Patch and I can't wait to make this an annual thing with the girls - hopefully that land isn't getting sold (hence them no longer planting the xmas trees). If it does, we'll have to find an equally awesome location.
This great time was topped off with a change of clothes (into shorts since it was well over 80 degrees) for the girls, and a trip to Casa Trejo for lunch. I love my Kitchen Burrito! And the Salsa! OMG best Salsa EVER!
After lunch, Nana bought Buggy some hair accessories at the girly boutique next door - one of which was a little sparkly tiara - the kind with the comb to attach to your hair.... yeah, the cat got a good combing with that once we were home.
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