Pumpkin Pickin'

Yesterday, Rainbow and I went to the Ashland Berry Farm with her Brownie troop to enjoy a hayride and pick some pumpkins.

Frankly, the whole experience was very odd. It sounds a lot better in concept than it actually was. Granted, I would have been perfectly content spending the entire day on the couch and I think Rainbow was in agreement. Scouter had to roust us from some quality snuggle time to get us going.

All the Brownies and parents met to caravan to the Farm. We jumped in the car with another mom and her daughter. The kids immediately slapped on headphones and started watching a movie... thank goodness because the other mom was very interested in stopping on the way for a six pack and started telling me about her neighbor on crack. I thought she was kidding about both but apparently not. It was a long car ride.

We finally arrived at the farm, alcohol free, and hopped on a hay ride for the trip out to the pumpkin patch. Again, great concept. Should have been fun... but in actuality, not so much. We rode for about 10 minute in a swirl of dust and dirt. Literally, the kids were hiding their faces in their shirts to avoid the "smoke" as they called it.

The pumpkin patch itself was cute I guess. Rainbow and her friends were in search of the perfect pumpkin. Rainbow found one for herself and asked to pick one for Taz as well. Then we spotted a little baby pumpkin that neither of us could resist. We lugged them back to the dust bowl for the return trip. Whee.

The kids ran through a maze and jumped in a moon bounce a bit before we headed home. When we finally returned safely to our own car, I asked Rainbow if she had fun. "Not really," she responded.

While Rainbow and I were sidestepping drunk drivers and enduring dust storms, Taz and Scouter were touring a private farm and picking pumpkins with Cub Scouts. They had an enjoyable hayride, saw a calf that had just been born less than an hour earlier, and got to hold baby chicks. And they brought home two nice pumpkins.

Next year, we're all going with Cub Scouts.