Pumpkin patch

Yesterday afternoon, we went to a pumpkin patch/corn maze/petting zoo-type place with a couple of our friends (and their son, who is a few months younger than Biscuit). It's something I wanted to do last year but never got around to actually doing. So when our friends offered an invitation to join them, I didn't hesitate to say yes. 

Plus, our boys get along well together. We met at their house, and as we stepped up onto the front porch, their son walked over to Biscuit and said, "Look at my Spider-Man" then handed over his Spider-Man action figure. According to his parents, it was a pretty big deal because he LOVES his superheroes. Biscuit checked out the Spider-Man, then said, "Look at my horses" and handed over one of the horses he was carrying (speaking of big deals!).

The farm was about a 20-minute drive from our friends' house, and the whole way, Biscuit was asking if we were going to see the horses. I didn't know if there were going to be any horses, so I tried to prepare him for the worst. I told him we were going to a farm, and in his mind, a farm is not a farm without horses.

Luckily, they did have a pony, and that was close enough. They also had some chickens, a calf, a sheep, a couple of pot-bellied pigs and some rabbits.

We decided to go on the hay ride, so we walked up the hill to a big tractor with a long trailer behind it. I was a little surprised to realize that instead of sitting on hay bales, we would be riding on nice, cushioned boat seats ... not that I was complaining. While we were on the hay ride, we saw a couple of horses and some geese and ducks down by a pretty pond. Those horses added to the pony we had seen earlier seemed to be enough for horse-crazy Biscuit.

I've always wanted to do one of the big corn mazes, but I went to the website for this farm, and their corn maze was about 6 acres. If it had been just Jeff and me, I would definitely have done it. But all I could think of was getting halfway through it, Biscuit getting bored and melting down. Needless to say, that would not have made for a happy afternoon. So we were quite content to skip the maze and hang out in the kids' area.

They had these cool bouncy horses that were a lot like the Hippety-Hops we had as kids. There were three different sizes, so Jeff, Biscuit and I each had a horse that worked for us. When we lined them up beside each other, Jeff said it looked like the opening seen of "Bonanza." So of course, I had to hum the theme song while we bounced.

They also had a barrel train that was quite ingenious. They laid hand trucks down and hooked them together. Then they took oil drums and cut holes in them and built wooden platform seats. They mounted the oil drums on top of the hand trucks and hooked the whole thing behind a small tractor. I think both boys enjoyed it.

Our friends' son was fascinated by Charlotte's Web. It was a web made of rope and netting that kids could climb on. Biscuit got on the web for a few minutes but didn't stay for long.

"Mom, spiders live in webs. I don't want the spiders to get me," Biscuit said. I tried to explain to him that it was a play web, not a real one, but he wasn't buying it. He wanted to get off the web and go back to the bouncy horses.

By the time we left, both boys were pretty tired. Biscuit was asleep before we made it out of the parking lot. He slept all the way home, then I carried him into the house and tucked him into my bed, where he slept another 3 hours. 

Biscuit slept so hard that when he got up, he thought it was the next day. He walked over to Jeff and said, "Dad, do you remember yesterday when we played on the horses at the farm?"

I think everybody had a good time.