Kendall's 3rd Birthday - aka The Year of the Pumpkin

Kendall is 3!!!

Where did 3 years go? Seems like it went by so fast. Our baby is now a big girl, and all the trouble that brings - aka she pushes the envelope more often than not.

For Kendall's birthday this year we skipped the party and did a family day at the All Season's Orchard out in Woodstock. Kendall loves the great outdoors, and we thought a little apple picking and a trip to the pumpkin patch would be a grand old time. Sadly, with all the heat this summer, the apple picking was bad and the orchard was not open on weekdays, but we were still able to hit the pumpkin patch and all the activities the place had to offer - and boy did it have a lot of activities.

Similar to our stay cation, we headed out mid-week for our excursion - Kendall's birthday was a Wednesday. This was the best move ever. We had tried to do the pumpkin patch a couple years back, but it happened to be Columbus Day and everything was so busy we gave up on the idea. Mid-week with no holiday, the Orchard was empty. Literally. When we pulled up there were only 5 cars in the parking lot, and we were the only visitors. Even though it turned out to be a colder day than we expected. we had the place to ourselves.

First up, we checked out what Nate and I referred to as the Goat Bridge to Nowhere. Really, it is a petting zoo with goats, sheep, llamas, and chickens. The goats have the bridge in the enclosure that they can climb, and you can send food up to them.

The animals in the petting zoo were looking for some food, and started following Kendall and her apple cider doughnut around. She looked like the pied piper. The goats and llamas were getting especially friendly and following her around from one end of the enclosure to the other.

Inside they had bunnies and chicks, as well as an area you could get closer to the animals and "pet" them. Since I am kind of weird about that, we passed on the petting, but did get to check all the animals out.

On the weekends the Orchard does pig races. This means these pigs run around a short track to get some food at the finish, while the workers clean out their pens. The signs all said they don't run the races on weekdays, and I was kind of bummed. Who doesn't want to see a random pig race? But, we were in luck, and as we walked past the pig track, the pig guy asked if we wanted to see them race - of course!! The guy was really nice and got Kendall involved, asking her to say "Ready, Set, Go!" to start the races, as well as asking her to bet on the pig that would win (they had colored ribbons on their necks). Kendall loved this!

 

Then it was on to the main attraction - pumpkins! This place had an awesome pumpkin patch full of all different types of pumpkins and gourds. We spent a lot of time wandering around picking out the best ones - or in Kendall's case the rotted ones that she wanted. Nate and I just went ahead and put those back and steered her towards a nice fresh pumpkin.

There were small pumpkins. These Kendall enjoyed the most because she could cart them around.

 

 

And large pumpkins that were almost the size of Kendall, and definitely bigger than Cassidy.

 

 

We really enjoyed wandering around the pumpkin patch and spent a good chunk of our time in there. We ended up taking home 2 huge pumpkins and a bunch of smaller ones - so in all a good pumpkin haul.

 

We checked out the rest of what the farm had to offer - which was a bunch of stuff for kids to go wild and climb all over.

Yep, that's me and Cassidy on the swings. What, can't see Cassidy? That's because she is in my jacket. It was chilly out there.

 

Kendall really dug this slide. She ran right up there and went down the slide - and it was high!

 

See, that is seriously high. And she went right on up there, no fear.

 

We wrapped up our day picking out some pre-picked apples and lots of pumpkins and headed on home.

 

 

All in all, it was a great birthday, and we capped it all off with the requisite cupcakes when we got home.

 

Happy 3rd Birthday Kendall!! You have kept us on our toes so far, and we have enjoyed every minute of it!