Weekend fun

I didn't get around to mentioning that last weekend, we discovered a great place nearby for fall festivities, Patterson Fruit Farm. This is our third visit to a farm this season, and this was probably the best place so far. This is one we'll definitely come back to, maybe even before the end of the month. It was a very popular place, judging by the crowds, and there were so many fun activities for kids.  We kept Leah really busy trying everything out.

It started out with a horse-drawn wagon ride that took us to the family fun fest area. There was a big pavilion filled with hay stacks and she loved climbing them, dancing on them, and going down the little slide and going through the tunnel.  She was fascinated with the hay and spent quite a while examining it. She got to go on her first pony ride. We thought it was cool that she wasn't scared at all. John walked around with her and she gave me a big wave and a smile every time she went around. She rode around on a go-cart, sitting on my lap while John pushed us around. She had fun checking out the inside of a tee-pee and wandering through a little corn maze.

She loved going on all the slides, especially the big 50 foot double slide. John sent her down the slide totally on her back so she wouldn't fall and hit her head. Everyone was laughing, especially Leah. She was giggling and kicking when I caught her at the bottom. She went down the slide about 6-7 times. It was absolutely hilarious to watch. She couldn't get enough of it.

When we were done with everything there, we took the wagon ride back to the little market and Leah had fun looking at the pumpkins and flowers. In the store, she found the resident dog lying there on his blanket with a few kids petting him. She went right up to him and gave him a hug, twice, and was so excited about him, shouting and pointing at him "doggie! doggie! wooo wooo". We brought home some delicious apple pie, a bag of apples and some other fun things.

I'll load some pictures here when I get a chance, but in the meantime, you can check out the photos on the right.

This past weekend, we took her to the Botanical Gardens (after a delicious meal at the Korean restaurant, of course). We'd never been to the Botanical Gardens before since it's not really our kind of thing, but we'd heard that kids seem to like going there.  It turns out they have a really neat children's garden with fun activities and there were a lot of kids running around. We didn't stay all that long actually since we got there kind of late, plus, the minute we walked into the gardens, Leah, with her big "oooo's" and "aaaah's", walked right onto the splash pad fountain that was shooting water into the air and got her pants and shoes all wet. But that was just the beginning in terms of getting soaked.

We found the children's garden, and she had fun playing in the sandbox and trying to figure out what to do with the buckets and scoops.

And then she saw the other children playing with the water pumps, filling up buckets and watering cans with water. It was cute watching Leah's discovery process. She tried to pump the water herself and fill the buckets. In typical Leah style, when John tried to show her how to pump the water, she refused any help and wanted to do it all herself.

But in the process, her pants and shoes and jacket got soaking wet. Since we didn't want her to catch a cold and it was almost closing time anyway, we decided it was time to go. She ended up riding home without pants and shoes on. Reminder to self: bring a change of clothing in the car.

Pictures to come....