Our Jones Family Experience: October 2011

Fall Fun

I’ve always loved autumn and all of the things that come with it, the weather, apple picking, Halloween, and pumpkin patches.

We’ve been in the fall season for a while now, but we continued our Fall Fun last weekend by going to the pumpkin patch. The last two years we went to a local farmer’s stand to pick out pumpkins, but when I heard of an actual pick your own pumpkin patch I knew we had to go even though it was an hour away. (What isn’t in VT?)

I was a little disappointed when we got there since the pumpkins weren’t on the vines anymore, but we still went out into the field to find those perfect pumpkins.

Heading out to the pumpkin patch

Daddy pulling Hadley pulling the wagon up a hill

Malia's turn to pull the wagon

Trying to pick out the perfect pumpkin

Hadley found her pumpkin

Malia found hers

Helping Daddy with the full wagon

Trying to keep up with Hadley

Strong girl

Pumpkins!

A few nights ago we raked up some of our many, many leaves. The girls had a blast jumping in all of the leaves. Malia wasn’t too sure of it at first, but she quickly figured it out and was jumping in right along with Hadley.

Giant Pumpkin Regatta

As I’ve said before, we are always looking for things to do in Vermont, so when I came across the Giant Pumpkin Regatta I knew it was something we had to check out. It was the 4th Annual Pumpkin Regatta where people carve out 1000 plus pound pumpkins and row them in a race on Lake Champlain.

We only saw a few of the races, but it was definitely worth the trip. We had fun walking around the water front, Hadley got her face painted, and Malia had a blast chasing after all of the dogs that were there for the Pet Costume Competition.

It was another Vermont classic that we enjoyed and will visit again next year.

Chasing after a dog

The start of one of the pumpkin races

Hadley getting her face painted. She looked pretty scared throughout the process.

The final product

A better shot of one of the "pumpkin boats"

And Now There Are 3

Baking is something Hadley and I have always enjoyed doing together. Since Malia was born, it was our thing to do together. Lately we have been baking during Malia’s naps or Malia was happy to play in the kitchen while we were busy. The last few times we have been baking though, Malia has shown more and more interest in what we are doing, trying to climb up Hadley’s step ladder or trying to get me to pick her up to see.

Yesterday while I was getting ready to make apple muffins, Malia pushed her little chair into the kitchen, climbed onto it and grabbed an apple. She looked so proud of herself. Once Hadley was on her step ladder, Malia kept trying to climb up too, she I decided it was time for Malia to join us for baking.

It took much longer than normal and we ended up with a huge mess, but we also ended up with some yummy apple muffins, great memories, and a new activity that we can all do together.