Punkeen Patch
In an effort to create some sort of annual tradition, we took Clara to a pumpkin patch (or “punkeen” patch as she would say) last week.
Here she was last year at the Ashland Berry Farm (more photos here)…
…and this year at the Chesterfield Berry Farm:
Oh the difference a year makes (though not so much in the hair department). After going last year on a swamped Saturday, we dodged crowds this year by going on a surprisingly empty Wednesday evening. Though a bit less “festive,” it definitely meant Clara could enjoy the trip without getting trampled by older kids.
She was the lone bunny feeder for the afternoon.
We also had full reign of the moon bounce (Clara’s first!).
Likewise, we were the lone patrons at the “Corn Bin” play area.
And since the girl loves blowing bubbles in the bath, she gave that a go in the corn as well. Naturally.
I don’t understand little girls sometimes. Then again, sometimes I don’t understand big girls either. Take Miss Corn Princess below for example.
But as fun as bunnies, bounce houses, and bins of corn were – the hayride out to the pumpkin patch was the highlight of the evening. Especially since we had it pretty much all to ourselves.
Clara probably enjoyed the ride more than the destination actually. Between lounging in the hay…
… and watching the tractor wheels, it was heaven for her.
And we loved that we got the best seats in the house – er, hayride.
Once we got to the pumpkins, she was less interested in them and more so in the dirt around them. We finally convinced her to pay attention to the pumpkins by showing her that it’s fun to put dirt on them. Ooooh, fascinating….
In the end we did come home with one pumpkin, even though we’ve already painted ours for the year. But you can’t leave a pumpkin patch without a pumpkin, right??
Maybe next year we’ll try to find some middle ground between a busy Saturday and a deserted Wednesday. As long as it’s not too crowded to take another shot like this.
By the way, this is totally three pictures photoshopped together. There’s no way this was happening in one take!
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That picture of John + Clara + Pumpkin = Mushy gooshy cuteness.
Totally off topic, but where is your coat from?
Banana Republic Outlet last year. Maybe try ebay now? It has blue and white pinstripes in the lining if that helps you find it!
xo,
s
Hahaha, I love VA. Who thought of a “corn bin play area”? Amazing.
I know! It made me think twice about a sandbox- the corn was so much fun! Just worry that if we tried to make one it would get eaten by squirrels and birds! Haha.
xo,
s
I live in Nebraska “The Cornhusker State” :) and I have a corn box instead of a sandbox! :) much cleaner!!
I was wondering how you got that photo with all three of you in it! Your photoshop skills are excellent!
Looks like a fun trip! Great pictures!
That picture of the bean trying to blow bubbles in the corn is amazing. For reals.
I had to try to explain to Josh why pumpkin patches were fun. He grew up in Asia where that doesn’t happen, and even when I tried to draw a parallel to cutting down your own Christmas tree, all I got was a blank stare.
Raising kids with him will be interesting (and totally awesome).
OMG that photo of Clara feeding the bunnies all by herself made my heart melt! SO precious :)
That last photo really needs to be your Christmas card this year….so cute and funny!
I think it’s pretty awesome that the place was deserted, you had it all to yourself.
What a perfect day! Looks like a very special occasion. And I do love your camera!!
Looks like tons of fun! I’ll bet Clara loved having the place all to herself to explore at her own pace. Thanks for sharing all the pictures!
So cute! I think my favorite part about fall is a visit to the pumpkin patch. Great pics!!
Ms. Corn Princess ~ ha! Cute cute pics ~ love the one of John holding Clara’s hand and the pumpking. And the last one of you and Clara. :)
Cute pics. We are big fans of the Chesterfield berry farm (fun for strawberry picking in the summer too). We have had good luck on the weekends just going early. By next year Clara will be down to one after lunch nap and you can make it an early morning activity and be done by lunch. Thanks for sharing.
I love, love, love going to the pumpkin patch. We tried a new one this year that had inner tube trampolines: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rascoe_photos/6285029064/in/photostream, a giant slide: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rascoe_photos/6285035342/in/photostream/, and of course, pumpkins still on the vine: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rascoe_photos/6285055254/in/photostream/. The kids would happily spend every day there. I think I could too!
Looks like tons of fun!
xo,
s
Oh my gosh. Love, love, LOVE! Especially the picture of Clara watching the tires and John and Clara walking hand in hand with that pumpkin. I bet it just made your heart melt, huh Sherry?!
Yup, I was basically a puddle. Haha.
xo,
s
LOVE The Ashland Berry Farm!
Not kid friendly at all but you guys should try their Haunted Evenings if you ever get the chance to go sans baby. Booger Woods is so much scary fun!
Also, a great pumpkin patch is Belvedere Plantation up in Fredericksburg. It gets pretty hectic on the weekends but during the week there are still enough people there to make you not feel like the zombie apocalypse has left you as the lone survivors.
I hope you guys have a great time trick-or-treating tonight with your little monkey!
Aw thanks for the tips Stefanie!
xo,
s
So cute! Looks like you’ve got a thumb sucker! I used to suck my left thumb as well…until I was about 14…no joke.
AHAHAHA! The picture of Clara “blowing bubbles” in the corn cracked me up! And I was pretty impressed with you guys getting that last picture, but then read below about how it was photoshopped :P
lol i love clara’s corn faceplant. she looks like she had a blast :).
MAN! You all are one good lookin’ bunch! These pix are so precious but I have to vote the head in the hole pic as a fav! But then again Daddy+Clara pic is pretty great too! Oh but then there’s always the Sherry Corn Bin pic – Who knew corn kernels could look so seductive?
lol!
Happy Halloween Petersiks!
Sherry, Clara totally has your eyes…especially when she’s smiling. Love the punkeen pictures.
LOVE the picture of her looking through the railing at the tractor! So cute.
And whatever genius came up with the loose corn play area is a genius. I would just love to walk around in that(so long as I could block out the image of all the little Clara’s “blowing bubbles” and god knows what else in it! haha)
I weirdly had a dream about you guys last night…You both showed up to my house unannounced and I was sooo embarrassed because my house is a mess. You said you were house-crashing me and that you were going to take pictures of it for the blog. I, in turn gave you the most awkward home tour ever and I’m pretty sure you regretted stopping in by the time it was all done with.
Maybe I just have severe anxiety about the state of my home this week. Maybe it was that the last thing I read last night before bed was YHL. Maybe your awkwardness vibes are just SO strong that they translate into my dreams ;) Maybe all three.
Aw man, so sorry to barge in on your dream like that. Haha.
xo,
s
we did the pumpkin patch thing here this weekend… last year my son was about 6 weeks old… so a year DEF made a difference. Our little guy DID get trampled on by older kids though :s…. two actually. Maybe we should try a wednesday next year…
Sherry!
Your corn princess picture is hilarious! Definitely made me laugh :)
I love not-crowds! My husband is the opposite, he loves a huge crowd. Weird.
I love Clara putting dirt on the pumpkins! Like she’s trying to help them grow
Have room for one more on these adorable Petersik family trips?! Kids love me, I’m great with a camera, and I tell some really great corny jokes!
Haha, sure. Come on over!
xo,
s
I had to comment on this….How fun was Clara’s first Bouncy House experience? My 2 year old went in his first one in September — Sooo fun!! He tumbled for the first time on his own in it, and now he is a tumbling fool! Soo cute!
2 faves:
The bounce house profile pic…so angelic.
The corn chomping pic…for obvious hilarity!
The blowing bubbles picture is priceless.
hand-in-hand, dad+baby+pumpkin photo? dying. just dying of the adorable.
How did you get Clara to sit still with her face in the cutout hole in the last pic??? LOL we tried for ten minutes at our pumpkin patch to get this shot and my two year old would not cooperate! Lucky! :P
Haha, well we photoshopped a few pics together to get all of us looking out- so when it came to getting her to look out the hole, John would hold her back there and I would stand out front of it with the camera and dance and giggle until she looked and madly snapped away until I got something! Definitely took a few tries.
xo,
s
Oh man, that corn bin looks fun. I’m gonna have to go there next year on a random wednesday just to make up for this year. We went to ashland berry farm on a saturday and it was PACKED.
I was seriously wondering how you were able to get that picture, Clara so sweetly looking out the hole……by herself. LOL Very cute pictures!! Thanks for sharing.
clara is already half your height Sherry!! time flies!
I know, right? I think she’ll be taller than me by middle school…
xo,
s
Laughing out loud at the blowing bubbles in the corn and Miss Corn Princess! :D Happy Halloween!
She is too cute!!! What a little peanut! We took our daughter (just shy of 1 year) to a pumpkin patch a couple of weeks ago and she too had a good time. :-) I totally love fall!
OMG! Bunnies!
Pretty awesome that you had the whole jumpy thing to yourselves!!!
So sweet! we were just there sunday! so much fun! it got crazy there sunday but still lots of fun! favorite photo was the corn ones of Clara…Scarlett tried eating that corn, she didn’t stay in too long. :)
Hi There,
Just wondering how your Halloween was??? Whats a typical VA Halloween in your neighborhood like? Here is SoCal I am little bummed…ok a lot bummed! The ratio of homes with lights off to lights on was 70:30 or worse!! This is nothing like how it was when I was a child and it makes me so sad to see the lack of participation from everyone. I hope this was not going on in other areas of the country.
Aw man- we had an awesome Halloween! Lots of lights on and even though it drizzled we still took Clara to a few houses just for the ceremony of ringing the bell. We also did a lot of door answering here and handed out lots of candy.
xo,
s
Aww. Seriously fun times! Fall is the best! Does it weird you out that people across the world dream about you? I include myself in that because I totally had a dream where my boyfriend and I came over and for whatever reason you wanted me to style your hair…this is weird because a. Im not a hairdresser and b. I dont have hair to be envied or anything…but the funniest part of the dream was when John and my boyfriend came running into the room like little boys yelling about how excited they were to tear down your kitchen wall…very weird. anywho. Happy fall.
Hahahaha- I love it! We have dreams about all sorts of random people (John just had a dream about Hope Solo and Maks from Dancing with the Stars last night- apparently we were all hiking together). Hilariously random!
xo,
s
Seriously people, Clara is like the cutest lil thing when she sucks her thumb!!! it makes me go Awwwwwwwww everytime!!!
And Sherry you crack me up, thats a very Sexy posing in the corn look ha! xx
From the mother of a bald blonde baby girl, let me just say, all of a sudden, it will come in and be crazy. Samantha didn’t get her first haircut till she was 3– the same day her also-blonde baby brother got his hair cut. (He was 6 months old.)
Compared to kids in my family, Clara has a lot of hair for her age :) There are some pictures of my niece Evalee in this post: http://thisdiylife.wordpress.com/2011/05/06/all-in-a-days-work/. She was almost 3 1/2 in these pictures – Clara has plenty of time :)
Wahoo! You have no idea how happy that makes me.
xo,
s
Wow. Just PMPL (peed my pants laughing) at the comment from John about not understanding big girls and the subsequent picture of Sherry in the corn. You two are too funny!
Just want to tell you how entertaining and helpful this blog has been. We have a fan club going on in Winnipeg, (Canada), which I’m sure you’ve never heard of. Regardless, we love you!!!
Thank you for every hilarious how-to entry you’ve written.
Danielle :)
Aw thanks Danielle! We actually have heard of Winnipeg! Wahoo.
xo,
s
Looks like a really fun day. Maybe a Friday would be the perfect fun for next year….
:)
Hey guys, love the photos of Clara!!! Just a word of advice because I know she is a thumbsucker. I have always heard people say that kids will stop sucking their thumbs when they are ready. Mine started as an infant and hasn’t stopped and she just turned seven! We have tried everything to get her to stop and it is a daily battle. Her front teeth are buck and will require braces. I wish I had nixed this habit when she was alot younger because it is much harder the older they get. Anyway, just saying don’t let it go as long as I did. Love your blog!!
Yeah, both John and I were thumb suckers and our parents tried furiously to get us to stop (even if we try with Clara now, it’s the first thing she pops into her mouth when she goes down for a nap or to sleep- and we can’t take her hands away!). Might just be one of those things that we’ll have to try our best and see what happens! Both John and I had braces as a kiddo so it might just be her destiny- as much as I hate to say that.
xo,
s