Pumpkins & Slides & Piggies OH MY!!

I think it's Fall now....I mean, the temperature is dropping, the humidity is fading away, and last but not least, a SURE sign we are getting closer and closer each day to Winter, the LEAVES are CHANGING!!!! Fall is my favorite time of year, with Spring running a close second. The largest drawback to spring is the rain. LOTS of rain around these parts...I'm not all too fond of the wet stuff mucking up the place....Fall has it all wrapped up for me....you can stay outside all day in this pleasant weather...no heat stroked, no hypothermia, just pleasantness. One of our favorite fall time activities is to pack up the Brats and head out to get some pumpkins...Nothing like carving up some pretty, plump, punky pumpkins to bring in the season! We opted to visit a large farm down the road this year called Belvedere Plantation. Belvedere Plantation is a 645 acre working farm, built in the 1760s on the historic Rappahannock River near Fredericksburg, Virginia. I think we may have started a new family tradition, cuz this place was fantastic!




After we arrived, we hopped on a 'high-tech' hayride and headed for the pumpkin patch. This hay ride played some fun square dancin' music that really got is in a pumpkin picking mood!
There were plenty of pickins', so off we went. Each in search of a specimen that 'spoke' to us. It's a complex thing, this pumpkin pickin'....size, weight, shape, stem...these are all very important factors and their importance weighs a little differently depending on the pumpkin picker...

Middle Brat, for example, he had only two priorities. Close to the hayride, and orange. He found some suitable prospects fairly quickly!

Little Brat, on the other hand, was looking for something small enough for her to carry "all by herself". Of course, she is not one to conform to the uniform standard of pumpkins like the rest of us, so something in green (vs orange) suited her...

Oldest Brat is an idealist....she looked long and hard for the PERFECT pumpkin...deep orange, even oval shape, healthy stem...finding all these traits in just one pumpkin was not an easy task...she looked long and hard before she found just the right one...and once she found her perfect little specimen, she tucked and RAN back to the hayride so as not to be pumpkin mugged by all the jealous non-pumpkin holding pickers! OK, maybe she didn't run, be she did move with a sense of urgency :)

My pumpkin, you ask? Well, I found MY soul-mate squatting between some lesser candidates. I felt a draw to her...a connection I can only attribute to the similarities we shared...

Mainly, our bulbous waist lines...

With our fruitful find in hand, we climbed back on the hayride and staged our loot to be loaded into the car on our way out. Mission accomplished!

Wait! There was much more to do yet! There were all sorts of games and activities for us to enjoy! So many, that we couldn't actually fit it all into one afternoon....we did get a few fun and exciting events in though....the kids (Daddy included), climbed up a massive hill to enjoy a ride down Pumpkin Mountain on a burlap sack...

And what family activity is complete without a pig race?!?!?! Here, Farmer Ian instructs us on the intricacies of pig racing...who knew there were intricacies to pig racing!

Off they go! These pigs can RUN! Never saw pigs move so far...of course, Farmer Noah was waiting at the end with some tantalizing slop for the winner...wouldn't YOU run fast for sloppy slop???

But, alas, all good things must come to an end....just out of curiosity, at what age do we accept this to be true? Cuz Little Brat isn't buying it....she dangled by daddy's fingers all the way to the car....she wants to live here now...Amongst the face painters, moon-bounce and zip lines....geez, now that I think about it, maybe she's on to something!

Happy Trails!

Leah