Parades and Pumpkins!

I LOVE fall weekends! They are filled with so many fun things to do. This weekend was no exception.  We headed downtown Plainfield on Saturday to watch the annual Homecoming Parade. It's the same parade I grew up watching and have even walked in.  We have our ritual of getting Munchkins and coffee.  This year we brought some new friends with us.  Our buddy Gavin came and enjoyed eating some Munchkins with us.

 

Baby Colton came to his first parade and Evie was by his side.  She loves that little guy!

 

My kids love parades.  They love the marching bands, the fire trucks, but their favorite thing though is getting all the candy!

 

Gracie met us at the parade because she was lucky enough to have a sleepover at her BFF Jackie's house.  I made her wear her Wesmere shirt for a little spirit.

 

And these little ones were sporting their new Bonnie McBeth shirts.

Everytime a marching band came by, Baby Colton would crinkly up his face and stick out his lip. He never cried but always looked he would there for just a second. Then he would be fine. If you know Plainfield, then you know it's huge so when the 4 high school marching bands came by, and also all the countless middle school bands, we finally got a good pic of him doing is "band face."

Like I said, these guys were all about the candy. They made out like bandits too. You would have thought they just went trick-or-treating or something.

And Colton, well he decided the parade was ok, minus the bands, and he now supports the ladies of Girl Scouting!

 



Today was a nice, crisp fall day so after church, we headed up to Johansen Farms. We've been going here for the last couple of years too. The kids love it and the whole children's zoo. It's a little pricey but worth the money if you love pumpkin patches like mine do.

 

We fed goats.

 

And we even saw little baby goats.

They have a whole little barn filled with baby chicks that you can pick up and hold. They are so soft and fuzzy.

 

Here are my little pumpkins. It's hard to beleive they are this tall already!

 

We got to take a little train ride and I got to ride with my little guy!

 

Gracie rode with Grandma.

 

Evie rode with her favorite Auntie Amy and poor Grandpa had to ride all by himself.

 

They had a bunch of different bouncy houses there but this big slide was thier favorite.

 

They have fun places all over to take your pictures so everytime we passed one, we had to stop and take our pics.

 

Even Grandma and Grandpa got in on the action.

 

Next we got to do some pony riding.

 

Then we went on a hayride.

 

This guy thought the hay was sand so he was trying to bury himself in it.

 

And Presley was in Heaven after being able to play on this tractor.

 

Not sure what happened here.....

 

My little monsters.

 

And since it is a pumpkin farm, they do have tons of pumpkins.  Presley had fun rolling some of the big ones around.

 

And they also have this cute little spot in the gift shop to take some pics too.

 

We've been having fun doing all this pumpkin farm hopping every weekend.  We are going back to one again next weekend.  We love fall!

Pumpkin Patch!

Yesterday was quite the most beautiful day to head out to one of our favorite pumpkin patches with all our friends.....

 

We love going to Dollingers because they have all kinds of fun buildings to play in.

Like this barn....

 

and this castle....

 

and this church, (even though we came from there)...

 

and the school!

 

Grandpa even had fun climbing in this castle!

 

And what kids don't like playing on hay?  Even Daddy joined in on the fun.

 

Baby Benny (who is 1 month old today!) came to his first pumpkin patch extravaganza!

 

We played on the hay with our buddies Gavin and Jackson.

 

We climbed the pirate ship too.

 

Ahoy mateys!

 

Baby Tessa and Baby Colton came out for the fun too!  Just imagine the fun next year when they are all running around!

 

Every year we take this picture.

 

All of kiddies getting so big!

 

We had lots of friends come meet us at the patch today.  We got to play with Gavin, Tessa, Colton, Emily, Sean, Mia, Sophia, Jackson, and Baby Benny!

 

I think they are used to this by now!

 

Evie of course had to hold all the babies.  She loves her some Baby Colton.

 

Presley had to hold his little buddy.  In fact the other day, he said Colton was "his buddy."  How sweet is that?

 

Evie also had to hold Baby Tessa.

 

Then we saw there was some face painting.  Guess who went first?

 

(ok not sure how this pic ended up in here but it's not from this day.  Not sure where it came from)

 

Auntie Amy came with us too.

 

Then Evie and Presley had to get their faces painted too.  Evie wanted one just like her big sis and Presley got his Ninja Turtle!  Actually he told me it was Raphael.

 

Gracie got to pet and hold a baby bunny.

 

There were so many pumpkins there but these are my favorite pumpkins of all.

 

The best thing about this pumpkin patch is that it's mostly free!  You can buy food or bring a picnic lunch and the train ride and hay ride cost money.  But there is so much all else you can do with the kiddies that doesn't cost money.  Not to mention all the great picture taking which are great memories every year.

 

Grandpa even got himself in on the Baby Colton action. He must have been the baby whisperer because he fell asleep.

 

We had to walk out to take a train ride too so my girls were so sweet about holding hands on the way there.

 

And my favorite pic was when they were holding Daddy's hands.

 

We made it out to the train ride and these guys rode in the caboose.

 

Baby Colton took his first train ride too. Doesn't he look excited?  

 

And then my kids had to go in the corn maze.  Now the last time we were in one, it took awhile to get out. They had to take turns being the leaders but eventually we did find our way out.

 

Then my pumpkins were begging to get some real pumpkins to take home.

 

So we loaded up a cart and bought some to take home and evetually carve.  

 

I heart fall!