pumpkins at last!

I love pumpkin patch posts. I have rather enjoyed looking at all of your lovely pumpkin photos and patiently waited for my turn to come. Day after day I hoped John and I would be able to make it happen amidst his crazy volleyball schedule. I needed John there. I cannot take pictures with 3 boys running in 3 separate directions.

I even laid out the boys' old fall clothes on their dresser, just in case.

We were planning on going camping with our church this weekend. As much as we wanted to go, it was looking more and more unrealistic as the days passed. Our house was/is in shambles and we could barely make it to the grocery store...or the pumpkin patch...let alone camping. We just did not have a peace about going, and so we decided to stay home.

Well yesterday, my big day finally came. The sun lined up with the moon and stars, and we were finally able to take the boys to the pumpkin patch. I was so excited. I even curled my hair for the occasion!

When we got there, I was a bit dismayed at all the throngs of people that decided to join us. It was really crowded. But, I decided that I was not going to let anything damper my spirits. Not even the mass swarms of humanoids.

Calvin found a great pumpkin candidate almost instantly.

Ollie, of course, instantly made a bee-line for the off-limits area. I told you I needed John there.


I found some pretty white pumpkins, and was hoping to entice the boys with them.

As challenging as it was to keep up with Ollie, it was so much fun to watch his face light up over all these glorious, magical pumpkins. He was in awe of God's creation.

Though the boys are wearing old clothes, I must confess that I did purchase them all some new sneakers last weekened. Calvin was not in dire need of a pair, but I could just not refuse these funky-fresh grey converse, complete with orange trim and lime-green laces. They had Calvin's name written all over them. No, I could not resist.

I was having a bit of trouble taking photos with all the people roaming about. The boys looked liked they were struggling a bit too.

We headed over the bridge, in search of more peaceful pastures.

I finally found the perfect little nook, that was out of the way of everyone. It was perfect, complete with a little pond and barn in the background. I gathered my troops and started to set up camp. My kids looked a bit stone-faced, but I figured I had a few more minutes to mix things up before the sun went down.



And this is when things started to go down-hill. Finn and Calvin informed us that they had to whiz. My heart literally sank. All I wanted was a couple of nice family photos. But this was not going to happen. We literally had 10-15 minutes before the sun would go down.

Such is life, when you are dealing with pint-sized bladders. And that is ok. That is our life right now, and so what you see is what you get.

Back we went, over the bridge, fighting the mass humanoid swarms, once again. Out to the parking lot to our new destination. This was our definite low point.

Ollie was a bit of a bear, desperately trying to claw his way into the outhouses. It was difficult to restrain him.

After all the whizzing, we went back to my nook, and John took some photos of me and the boys.





Ollie did not want to take photos with me. He would much rather play with his new pumpkin toys.

As the sun went down, the festive white lights began to twinkle.

I really wished I had paid more attention in my photo class when they were discussing night-shooting. I kind of tuned out once they started talking about tri-pods and special flash apparatus. It really is a pity, because this place actually would have been quite beautiful to shoot at night.