Pumpkin Patch

It was a cool morning when we met this past weekend for our Chesterfield Berry Farm Great Escape. Our families all went in together to enjoy their free time before we took the hay ride out to the pumpkin patches. All our starlight families were given a green star stamp giving us free reign to do any of the many activities available there. The haunted house was a favorite for Johnathan and his sister Madison where they walked through a path of everything from friendly purple monsters to bats and pirates. Our group gathered together and piled onto two hay wagons. Marky loved the bouncing of the wagon down the road to the pumpkins and laughed the whole way. Then we all set out to find the perfect pumpkin. The pumpkin patch made a stunning backdrop for pictures! David’s pumpkin was a little too heavy for him to hold so dad helped hold it up to pose for a picture. Ella and Taylor both found a great pumpkin. Ella wanted to hold it on her own for a picture but luckily she needed some help from mom so we were able to get them together in a picture. Samuel posed for several pictures holding Bo and sitting on top of a giant pumpkin. Bo who had wanted nothing to do with his stroller all day went exploring through the patch definitely headed for a mushy rotten pumpkin to get his hands into. Dad distracted him with another adventure and they headed off in the direction of the turkeys. The Clemmons family also found a very unique green pumpkin! Once everyone had chosen a pumpkin we started heading back to the front of the farm. We gathered everyone together that was left onto the last wagon and as we pulled off we realized that the Oehmann family was left behind. They chased the wagon down as we called for the driver to stop. Our hay wagon being chased down by a family of three carrying pumpkins added some laughter and excitement to the morning. 

We all met promptly for lunch at 11:20 under the shade of the picnic tables. Pepperoni and cheese pizza could be found on every table as well as a cauldron of candy. Cookies for dessert were a big hit. There were plenty of great Kodak moments at lunch; pizza sauce on people’s teeth and faces and don’t forget all those little mouths open and still full of food. It was great! Several people asked, “Where did this pizza come from?” So the answer is our delicious lunch came from A N.Y. Slice Pizza in Midlothian, VA. 

After lunch everyone was on their own to enjoy the many activities available at the Berry Farm. Families could be found rolling around in the shelled corn, riding ponies, visiting the animal corral, firing the Corn Cannon, or venturing into one of the haunted houses. A popular game was duck racing, where children pumped water that pushed their ducks down the lane, racing the people beside them for prizes. There were also wagon rides and a moon bounce. The corn maze, eight acres long and shaped like a haunted house was a challenge for us all. To get out of the maze there were twenty questions to answer all about pumpkins and Halloween. I went into the maze with Dawn, her husband Wes. After a few questions we stumbled upon two other Starlight families lost inside. Wes had a great sense of direction and led us along. We weren’t really lost until the question that asked, “What percentage of pumpkins are water?” We went with 20% but the answer was 90%. After a few loops we made our way back to question 16 and then finally question 20. You never know when pumpkin trivia will come in handy. So brush up on those facts this month in the spirit of Halloween. By the middle of the day it started to really warm up and everyone was taking off their jackets and hanging around having fun!