pumpkin trip

I am tired after all that field trip fun today. Hauling around lunches for 4 people all over a working farm is tiring. I have many lessons learned from that which will appear in Friday's installment. I'm glad to have gone as it was a nice day and the farm was located in a beautiful part of the countryside. The drive there was pleasant with rolling hills and old farms, so much beauty all around, it made me feel so lucky to live in an area with gorgeous landscape. We rotated through 3 stations on the farm. We began in the barnyard to feed the animals. It mostly involved the crowd of children throwing crushed corn towards the animals. All the animals were fed well before our arrival and were not interested in being near the noisy children. I must say it was a bit of a let down for the kids. Since we had 20 minutes until our next station I took my group over to the play area. I figured that they should be doing something and while the barnyard was a BIG let down they needed some fun. Our next station was the pumpkin life cycle. There a farmer explained the life cycle and showed the children several varieties of pumpkins. She discussed the differences between squash and pumpkins as well as an early season versus late season fruit. While the children were listening I made my way around the area and captured some pictures. It was a great location so much to see. I love pumpkins so I was quite happy to find several varieties to look at. When the farmer was finished with her lecture the children piled on to the trailer for the hay ride. We were taken to the pumpkin patch and told to find a good pumpkin to take home. There was much excitement. The kids dashed through the field searching for the most perfect pumpkin. It was something to watch these kids make decisions. There were many castoffs and last minute decisions. One child in my group located a very large pumpkin which was funny. I figured that would happen. Thankfully Olivia found the smallest pumpkin which made up for the other kids' big pumpkins making my load lighter. Before lunch we watched the pig races. Very funny. The kids were so tickled to see all those piglets running around the little track. The races were thankfully short leaving us with some time to eat and play. I wanted to allow my group 30 minutes of play time before going back to school. I as usual pumped up my group. I wanted them to eat quickly so they would have more time to play. That motivated them to cut the chatter and finish their food. By the time we finished eating we had 30 minutes to go play. We ran to the various attractions getting in everything. By the time we made it back to the buses my kids were worn out. Their heavy eyes on the way back made it clear to me that I was successful in running them hard.