Fall Adventures: Pumpkin Shoppin'

The date:  Sunday, September 16th

The time:  10 a.m. (as soon as they opened)

The place:  Fleitz Pumpkin Farm

The assignment:  make good use of this beautiful morning before the farm is overcrowded with weekend patrons and select the perfect pumpkins for our fall decor and recipes.

My trusty sidekicks and I were ready for the challenge.  We synchronized our watches, made a huddle and then broke for adventure.  :) 

 

Clearly Sophie's sights were set a little low as we got started.  ;)

Meanwhile, Will's initial selections were a bit too large.

The weather this morning was just gorgeous and we had the whole place practically to ourselves! 

There were a couple new baby goats that were insanely cute.

Plus some new chickens that strutted around commanding some attention of their own.

We breezed through the super short (free) corn maze.

At this point, I'd selected my favorite white pumpkin, a couple other marbled or zebra striped ones for decor and four pie pumpkins for baking.  We'd loaded our cart and the kids were going to head back and select their carving pumpkins.

But not before another stop at the goats...

The babies were nursing from their mama and the kids just watched in awe.  It's always intriguing (for me anyway) to see how different mammals initiate nursing and intuitively trigger a let down of their mother's milk.  Baby kittens sort of bat and knead their mothers gently, human babies (even newborns) tend to grab/squeeze/bat their mother's breast as they begin to nurse, etc.  All these stimuli that signal the appropriate hormones in a new mother to deliver milk to her demanding infant.  But goats...  These baby goats were basically head butting the mom's nipples to get her milk flowing!  Just a couple of staccato jabs with their nose followed by brief periods of suckling.  And then repeat.  I just looked and Will and Sophie and said "I'm sure glad I'm not a goat!"

Armed with his mama's milk, this cute little guy felt a surge of courage to climb to the top of these straw bales.  :)

"I'm the king of the mountain!"

Some of my faves of the two of them from the morning...

Definitely one of the highlights of pumpkin shopping at this age is watching their determined little selves attempt to lift the pumpkin of their choice.  Their expressions and efforts cracked me up.  :)

We spent some time in the barn before leaving.

I think the highlight of this trip for Will and especially Sophie was playing with the farm cat, Diamond.  Seeing Sophie's sweetness with this animal almost makes me want to get her a cat.  Almost.  It was just adorable.  I love her innocent eyes and unwavering attention.

Just a couple of trips down the slide and then out of the barn.

On our way to check out, loaded down with our selections.

The number of facial expressions this child might deliver on a daily basis is limitless.  :)

Think they're related?

And that was our trip to Fleitz Pumpkin Farm! 

Mission accomplished!