Mark's Melon Patch!

Saturday was the day the kids had long been waiting for...a trip to Mark's Melon Patch to pick out their pumpkins and take a hay ride. It was a bit hot and sweaty, and the gangs of gnats have been relentless around here, but it was fun.






The day was sunny and bright, and we couldn't have asked for a more beautiful sky. It was gorgeous blue and really made the sunflowers and pumpkins shine.

Katie Mei had her first hay ride. She wasn't thrilled about being awakened from her short nap in the car, so she played Ms. Grumpy for the first ten minutes or so. She also wasn't really sure about sitting in all that pokey stuff. Dad's lap was the place to be for starters.

But once she got the hang of things, and had a little straw-throwing fight with Jacob (courtesy of Daddy starting things), she warmed right up.

After the hayride, we sat down to drink some juice and sodas. Then Merrilee and Jacob checked out the not-so-scary "Spooky Trail". After listening to their bravado of how it wasn't very scary, I told them to pretend they were scared for the photo. I have to admit, they did a pretty darned good job of making like they were scared--if you click on the photo and look at Merrilee's face up close, you'll see she's pretty convincing. Maybe acting careers are in both their futures. Just what I need...kids who star in horror flicks.

We spent the next twenty minutes trying to get good photos of the kids with the pumpkins. It was a hard-fought battle, as the gnats were so obnoxious that the kids kept swatting and slapping. I got very few photos with a picture of all three kids with all six hands down.

Katie Mei and Daddy found some fun in the wheelbarrows used for hauling pumpkins. After a few rounds, Merrilee had to join in the action.

Before we left with our pumpkins, we found a pile of discarded green plants. Upon closer inspection we saw that they were peanuts. It was nice to be able to give the kids an up-close view of peanut plants with the peanuts still attached. I think they thought peanuts grew on trees like other nuts.

We're going to wait a couple more weeks before we cut into our pumpkins. With the weather still in the upper 80s and the over-friendly gnats, I don't think it would be wise to gut our orange friends just yet.

Later ya'll,

Petrie