Kate's first field trip (pumpkin patch)

The Kindergarten classes took a field trip out to the Schilter Family Farm on Wednesday the 13th. Kate was so excited about getting to ride a school bus for the first time. I figured I should document this momentous occasion, so I took Andy with me and drove down myself.

Andy and I beat the bus by about twenty minutes, so we had a while to wander around and look at things before Kate's class arrived.





Andy enjoyed seeing the animals, especially a family of kittens curled up together in a wheelbarrow. (Awwww!)






When the kids arrived they got to take a hayride around the farm in this tractor-and-wagon contraption.



We brought along Kate's pumpkin hat, but she didn't wear it very long. (It's a little too big.)








The kids got to pick out a pumpkin to take home. They have two fields there--one with bigger pumpkins, for families, and one with small pumpkins for school groups. Since they want the kids to be able to carry the pumpkin that they choose, they limit them to the small size. I'm not exactly sure how this size-segregation is achieved. Is that field planted with a variety that doesn't get as big? Are the pumpkins planted later so they don't grow as long? Do they actually sort the pumpkins after they've grown and strew them around the appropriate field? I suppose this could be. None of the pumpkins were still attached to the plants.



While Kate ate lunch with her class, Andy and I checked out this tractor.






"How do you turn this thing on?"

There were a few things that we didn't get to do, so we went back again on Saturday. It was SO CROWDED. Like Young's Jersey Dairy on a busy day, but worse. (And also very sunny, so not really good for pictures.) Kate really enjoyed the duckie races.