The Vance's: a family day at the pumpkin patch.

With all the transition of back to school and the end of the week fatigue we realized we desperately needed a fun, relaxing family day yesterday. We thought about doing some projects around the house but realized that would only lead to whining from all 5 of us. So, we headed outside for our first trip to the pumpkin patch this year! The weather was perfect - sunny but crisp air, no rain but cloudy skies. And we had a blast. Over 3.5 hours just running through the farm, getting lost in a corn maze, playing games and laughing together.

We tried a new farm, planning to save our other favorite for a few weekends from now, but this one did not disappoint. In fact, it might be our new favorite!

There were so many good photo ops set up throughout the farm I just couldn't help myself. Luckily the kids were good sports and knew to smile quickly before running off to the next area.

The friendly Seahawks witch stopped to say hello and give each of the kids Halloween pencils.

So many face in the hole pictures. They just never get old!

They had an apple blaster that would shoot apples out of this cannon and the kids could try and hit a target. So fun!

Pretty sure Matt "helped" Simon so he could really just launch the apple himself. No hiding that giddy smile on his face while he aimed the cannon around. Ha!

And then the corn maze. The kids really wanted to do one this year and we felt they were ready. We knew to bring patience because getting lost was inevitable and corn mazes always take 493559 times longer than you ever imagine. Carter was excited, Lucy was a little nervous and Matt was already ready to be done before taking one foot in that silly maze. Half way through we were feeling great! There were a few signs posted along the way that would show how much further we needed to go. 3/4 done and we only had a little stretch left and then?!? We took a wrong turn. And ended up going the complete wrong direction and retracing our steps without realizing it. After finding another sign everyone looked defeated. But....mom to the rescue! I pulled out some secret snacks in my purse and after munching on some apples we had the energy to reorient ourselves and made it out alive! Woohoo! No one cried, yelled, whined or gave up. A huge success in my opinion!

We moved on to the rest of the farm and there was SO much to do! A jumping pillow, basketball/football/baseball throw, barrel ride, candy cannon, playhouse, tire climb, tug of war, pumpkin bowling, sand pit, duck races, hamster wheels, hammering nails, bean bags and so much more. Seriously, this farm had it all!