Pumpkin Patch 2010

The boys were on "fall break" from school on Monday and Tuesday, so we made the most of it and planned a playdate with friends at the pumpkin patch on Monday. It was a beautiful day and aside from a swarm of mosquitoes that accosted us on the hayride, it was a pleasant day!

Thomas refused to sit in the sun and both boys were, as usual, unable to both look at me and smile at the same time (despite all sorts of bribery), so that's what we get.

We had better luck individually...




They had a blast on the "hayride," even though Thomas did inquistively ask me later why it was called a "hayride" since there was no hay. :)


Thomas was happy to sit with two of his best buddies (one from school and one from our former neighborhood):


Finally at the end of the ride, Parker was brave enough to leave my side and sit by his brother:

And of course the boys enjoyed the other joys offered at the pumpkin patch...the bounce house and slide, the big slides and the mound of sand. They didn't last long on the huge jumping "pillow" there...and I was a bit glad about that. Here they were on the bouncy slide:




The boys were moving so fast on this thing that I couldn't quite get the camera to keep up. So that was the best I could do with that!

And then before we left, we stopped for a quick picture on the big red chair (that is starting to look a bit more worn then when we first took a picture of Thomas there three years ago!


Here was Thomas in 2007 (I was probably about 10 weeks pregnant with Parker then!):


Just before we left, it was time for another one of their favorites...sitting on the tractors.










And just for fun, here's one of the other attempts to get a good picture with the pumpkins. This cracks me up. I had promised them lollipops if they would smile and look at me. Thomas was doing it (though often with this crazed, forced permagrin) but Parker would not look at me. I love this one because it's like Thomas is saying, "I'm smiling, I'm smiling...now is Parker looking at Mommy YET?!!"


We had a great time despite the lack of great pictures to prove it. Three of Thomas' best buddies came (each with a sibling friend for Parker (including one who is in his class)), and so it was a great day all around!

Pickin' strawberries

Today we took a little field trip with some of Thomas' school friends and their parents (and siblings) and visited a local farm to pick strawberries.  It's something I've wanted to do for years, but have never managed to actually do.  We got really dirty, but the boys had a ball...and I enjoyed it too!  And even better, the strawberries are delicious!





The boys really enjoyed it and I took a ton of pictures.  Since I'm so behind on blogging and need to just get this one up, I'm not sure I'll do too much narrating!






Thomas and one of his best buds, Thomas!




And his other best bud from school, Henson. Though it was impossible to get all of them looking at the camera at once.  


Thomas & Thomas.  The other Thomas rode with us because his Mom had a ton of things to do, so I managed to wrangle three kids around the strawberry patch.  Whew!  :)  They all made it easy.  But I did feel a little crazy the times I had to say, "Thomas & Thomas, come over here!" 


Some of the beautiful berries amidst all of the ever-plenty Wadmalaw Island dirt!






Parker had to take a few thumb-sucking breaks...




I've decided that this little boy, Luke (younger brother of a little girl who is in Thomas' class), is Parker's "hair twin."


Isn't he a cutie?


I tried to discourage Parker from eating the dirty berries in the field, but he was dying to eat one.  So I let him indulge in a cleaner one we found:




This is Parker saying, "Good!"


And then he decided it was fun to yell into the bucket:


The camera focused on the wrong person, but cute anyway...




Meanwhile, Thomas was running around with his buddies.


We attempted to get a decent picture of most of the children together (Henson and his brother had already headed over to the picnic area at this point):

Yeah, that went well.  :)

Luke's Daddy's picture of the same moment...


Then it was time to head over for our picnic lunch:


Afterwards the kids realized they could feed turtles in the pond:


See one of the turtles...






I'm pretty sure farmers don't wear sandals, Crocs or flip-flops for a reason!








But look at those beautiful strawberries!




Okay, that was ridiculous how many pictures I posted (and it took me an hour!).  The reason I have yet to blog about the boys' birthday party is because I have too many pictures from which to choose.  And I've yet to blog about Parker turning two because it requires too much brain power.  But I promise, they are coming.  I've backdated a few new entries today and will point them out shortly once I finish doing all the ones I want to do!