PUMPKINS ARE AWESOME.

Yesterday morning we took our annual trip to the pumpkin patch as a family.  Last year, I wrote a blog post and showed pictures of all our previous trips.  This year, a dear friend came to town - she is so dear to us that Lily's middle name is from her.  It was so fun to see her and share this fun fall tradition with her!

I am always a little obsessed with how beautiful fall stuff really is.  Pumpkins and gourds are so varying and unusual.  God's creativity blows me away.

The girls enjoyed riding around in the wagon - though they never wanted to smile for pictures.  At this stage, almost any cute picture I get of them is candid.

The bruise on her forehead is from very early Sunday morning (around 3 a.m.) when she chose to wake up and scream a lot and then bang her head on her bed in anger.  She was fairly unconsolable.  We long ago decided that head banging is its own natural consequence, since it hurts.  However, we learned this weekend that it can bring a lot of consequences for us in that people keep asking what happened, and I am regularly telling them about her anger issues.  We are working through it all.  I think.  I hope.  I don't really know.

Anyway . . . back to the pumpkin patch.

We thought a Monday morning would not bring many visitors to the pumpkin patch.  We were wrong, but we managed to finagle a hay ride pretty quickly anyway.

(pretty sure the girls are just licking dirt off their hands.)

We enjoyed our time in the actual patch - it was so leafy and in full production this year, maybe because of all the rain late in the season.

It was time to load back up, and the girls went running to John.  I love how much they love him.

Once back to the main area, we headed to the animal section.  Bella LOVES animals and was consistently yelling "ANIMAL!" to us.  There weren't as many this year as in the past, but the girls still enjoyed them.

(The Capri Suns we brought along were also a hit!)

And then it was time for the staged picture portion of our morning.  Funny kids who look stoic in pictures on purpose.  Ahh, well.




We did have a lovely time and enjoyed the beautiful weather.  Thanks for coming to visit, Becci and joining us in this annual treat!