Going to the Pumpkin Patch

Creating holiday traditions is really important. Going to the pumpkin patch every year is one of ours. Why are family traditions important? Traditions give kids a sense of family. It creates stability and fond memories that become imbedded into their souls. At a young age, children remember the general climate of their home and traumatic experiences, but they don’t always recall the day to day adventures in the life you have together. However, if you begin traditions at a young age, that general memory will stay with them. My kids are at the age where they go to the pumpkin patch in anticipation of what it looks like, what they will do and how they feel about that experience. The excitement begins when they know this fall tradition is coming. This year, Abby’s big goal there was to complete the corn maze (which we did). She also wanted carmel apples (which we ended up making at home instead with our Monster Carmel Apples). We try and set a budget for these days, not splurging on everything but having kids make choices. It’s a good discipline to teach them that they don’t need every souvenir, experience and food item. A lot of these pictures will look the same as my post on the Pumpkin Patch last year. Everyone is a year older but the spot is the same, and the journey is similar.

These three crack me up. We definitely have our struggles with some dynamic personalities in this family, but I am so grateful that they are such good friends (a majority of the time). They really love each other.

Here’s a little piece of advice. If you are doing anything with water on a cold day, do it at the end of the adventure. Corban got super wet. Fortunately we had an extra sweatshirt and a jacket in the car. Unfortunately, the sweatshirt was a purple girl’s sweatshirt. I’m glad we had the jacket to cover it.

This is us waiting in line for the corn patch. We probably chose the worst day to go. I’ve never seen the place so packed. It was a sunny Sunday in the Seattle area. There was no football game. Everyone had the same idea we had.

The corn maze was a success. It was a monster themed maze this year, and we found all of the monster markers throughout the maze. This is one of my favorite activities at the pumpkin patch. I think it is pretty fun to navigate the map, and it is a lot more challenging than you’d imagine. It is great to be at a point where all the kids were walking on their own and didn’t lose steam. In that sense, I feel like we are arriving somehow. Another mom tip: Corban doesn’t love the dark. He also isn’t a huge fan of the thought of monsters even though we explain they are not real. Any time we had to walk through a dark tunnel, we’d make a big celebration of it saying, “Isn’t this fun. This is so cool.” We got really excited ever time we went in, and he didn’t freak out. They really are paying attention to your response, so when you see your child fall or see a spider or something else that might freak them out, respond without panic, and they will learn to do the same.

I think this “How tall this fall?” is new…at least I haven’t seen it before. Love it. It will be fun to record their growth over time and watch them develop.

I think Corban and daddy were off grabbing a wagon at this time. My husband has a picture of all three of them on his phone. 

I hope you all are having a great Harvest and Halloween and are creating your own memories this year. If you want to see the carved pumpkins after our journey, make sure to check them out here.