Fall Field Trip Fun on a Farm

I was blessed to be able to accompany Joshua (and 15 other K4 kiddos) on a field trip last Friday to the pumpkin patch.  Given my love of all things fall related, this one was right up my alley and I think I may have been more excited than Joshua was if I'm telling you the truth.

Here's the day's events in pictures.

Joshua had his very first opportunity to ride on a school bus!  He absolutely loved it.  I have to tell you that I was more than a bit unglued about the fact that all of these small children were unsecured in the vehicle.  Doesn't seem right that there were no car seats on this trip, but we chose to go a new route and "go with the flow".  It was a real stretch for me.  As you can tell by the dorky smile on Joshua's face, he enjoyed the ride very much and was quite annoyed that I wanted to document this critical moment in his life's history with a picture.

Here we are on the hay wagon.  He thought this was pretty cool and giggled when all of us had straw on our rumps when we got up.  I have to tell you that I so enjoyed this field trip now that I'm getting to know more of the parents of the other kids in his class.  What great people!  And as we all get to know each other a little more, the truthful sides of us are coming out----- you know the ones that we try to hide when we're putting on appearances about being the mom who has it all together.  If even half of these kids stay in Joshua's class through his primary/secondary education, I can only imagine the fun we'll have at high school graduation!

After locating "the" pumpkin, Joshua was quite pleased.  I'm sorry to tell you that we inspected every single pumpkin in the patch before he was satisfied with knowing which one was the most perfect.  It seems he does not have my shopping genes.  Get in.  Get out.  Get the best deal you can.  He was lolly-gagging around still on the great pumpkin search while the rest of the class was boarding the wagon to head back to the farm.  And then it got interesting when I had to lug said pumpkin while running across the patch in order not to miss our ride back to civilization.

After visiting some animals in the barn and thoroughly sanitizing our hands the kids all found seats at the picnic tables in the pavillion to have a snack of freshly picked apples on the farm.  This was Joshua's maiden voyage of eating an apple au naturale (ie. with the skin still on it and not sliced up).  He seemed to enjoy himself, but took sweet forever to finish.  He was still chomping on that apple when we pulled back into the school parking lot (after a 20 minute ride back on the bus).  But look at that grin....he had a great time.

So that was the pumpkin patch.  I think it's safe to say that a good time was had by all.  Joshua lovingly placed his pumpkin on the front porch along side our other ones.  We haven't had the heart to slice him all up and turn him into a Halloween jack-o-lantern.  Something about scooping all the goop out of the pumpkin just makes me want to skip the whole thing.

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On a totally different note, things are moving along in house land.  We have effectively listed our home for sale (as of yesterday)....and yes, I'm already stressing out that it hasn't sold.  Think my expectations are a bit steep?  I nearly wrecked the car as I pulled up to the house yesterday afternoon and saw the for sale sign in the yard.  I have to tell you that, amidst all of the excitement about moving, I am struggling with being a little more emotionally attached to Greenbriar Drive than I probably should be.  But there are a whole lot of special memories in that house.  And I seem to have a bit of a problem with that under the best of conditions---- as in, I still haven't driven by my childhood home on Edgewood Place (in the many years since my parents moved out of it) because I can't bear the thought of someone else living there.  If you've ever heard the song "The House That Built Me" you'll know what I'm saying....but that song pretty much sums it up.  I'm not saying that Greenbriar Drive is the house that built me but it is a pretty big block in our family's foundation.  To not be able to remember the feeling of bringing two babies home from the hospital in that house just by walking through the door is a little sad.  But I digress.

I have also officially applied for the mortgage on the new house as of this morning.  There's no buzz kill like looking at the dollars and cents of a move like this.  So I officially now have the feeling that this is all a reality and the weight of the transaction is heavy on our shoulders at this point.  However, I must say that we're beyond lucky that this is working out the way that it is, and truly, we're not considering doing anything that is outside the comfort zone of what we can afford.  So I think this is mostly just Megan being Megan kind of stuff that will likely fade as I realize that the sky is not falling and we'll probably still be able to put a few groceries on the table once all is said and done. 

As long as someone buys our house.  Just saying.

Home inspection on the new house is set for Monday morning and I'm already all jittery excited about being able to be back inside again.  Hopefully all will go well and there won't be any surprises.  I have a list of things to measure and I'll take some photos so that I can share a few.  I hope we love it just as much the second time as we did the first.

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It's Grandparents Day tomorrow at Meadowbrook.  Joshua is so lucky because his Grandma, Nana and Pap are all going to be at school with him tomorrow morning.  Something tells me there could be stories to tell about this one!  From what we hear, it's a really special day at the school and I'm so glad that our family is making the sacrifice to be there with our little guy to see what K4 is all about.  I'll be home with Lauren in the morning, so I'm looking forward to it as well.

Happy Thursday, all!