Pumpkin Patch

Over the weekend we ventured to Center Grove Orchard for a little bit of fall fun for the family, though I was somewhat hesitant to take Elliot since he had been down and out with his ear infection. However, I think he was ready to be out of the house and doing something.

Center Grove Orchard is an apple orchard, pumpkin patch, fall fun center just north of Des Moines. I thought we would be there for an hour tops, get our pumpkin and be on our way home. Boy was I wrong. Now I remember when I was in college and going to Center Grove with the preschool class that I had a lab class with and there was the orchard, pumpkin patch and a barn, maybe two. Holy cow it's amazing what 15 years can do I tell ya. This place is a booming business these days ($7.95 admission, yes admission, for those 3 years and up). Along with the orchard and pumpkin patch there are hay rides, a petting farm, corn pool, face painting, pedal tractors, the three little pigs houses, apple launchers, mini-train rides, a bounce pillow (awesome) a super slide, educational shows/classes for the kids, a restaurant/snack shop and a "potty barn" . Oh, and there is a gift shop (of course there is). These people are rolling in the money because the place was PACKED when we arrived at 11:00 a.m. Saturday morning and was even more packed when we departed with our $7 worth of pumpkins over 2 hours later.

I must say that this was one of the more clever ideas that I have had (thank you to my friend Amanda), as Olivia had a blast. The first thing she went to was the corn pool, which is literally this barn full of corn and slides for the kids to slide into the corn and play in. Now, for those of you who really know me, you know that I hesitated before letting Olivia do this because, well just because. Blame it on the OCD's. The first thing Chuck said when we walked into that stinky over sized dirty corn barn was "your'e going to let her do this." I can't remember if I just ignored him or played it off like "yeah, why wouldn't I." Anyway, my daughter is truly my daughter, because after climbing up the ladder to the slide and sliding into that stinky dirty corn, she got up with a disgusted look on her face, looked around and said "I'm done". Being the great mom that I am and not trying to allow my OCD's to flow onto her, I tried to talk her into playing in that stinky dirty corn pile some more, but she wanted nothing to do with it. Good girl. The funny thing is tonight she tried to tell me that she liked sliding in the corn. Ha.

We hit pretty much everything when we were at the orchard. Olivia loved seeing the animals, though she would not touch them (another of my OCD's that has more than likely attached itself to Olivia). The bounce pillow was awesome, but it drove me nuts that we had to take our shoes off and then walk through sand, but well worth the pain of me going nuts. Once Olivia saw the super slide she kept telling us that she wanted to go on it. Alone. Once she got to the super slide, she changed her mind and went down it with one of us. At the end of our time at the orchard Olivia helped me pick out a pumpkin and was able to pick her own mini pumpkin, which is on the front porch and she talks to every night.

I made a slide show to share some of our pictures. There are only 2 pictures of Elliot. He was just a wee bit too little to do anything, but repeatedly yank his socks off all morning.

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