Sunday, October 23, 2011

The World's Best Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday we visited the local pumpkin patch. It is a charity run organization that specializes in miniature horses for horse therapy. They have had over 30 horses donated to their farm and this is their annual fundraiser. This pumpkin patch is geared towards toddlers and preschoolers, so it was perfect for us. It starts with a hay ride to get from the parking area to the farm.


Waiting for the tractor to come for the hayride....We bought tickets and went STRAIGHT to the petting zoo!


They had 4 animals to pet. All of the petting zoos that we have been to only have goats and sheep. This one had a miniature horse, a baby cow, a pig so fat that her belly was dragging (hopefully she was pregnant), and a miniature donkey.


The boys were saying 'here donkey!' and 'here cow!'.




A picture is worth a thousand words, you can SEE Zayne's hands are showing his frustration because I used his 'cup' to show them how to feed the little horse.





At one point, Malek accidentally tickled the donkeys ear and the donkey leaned his head into him and pushed him out of the way. Malek was giggling because the 'donkey pushed me!'. He knew that he had tickled it and I think he was really entertained that it had moved so quickly but didn't knock him over.



Then onto the horse rides. I love that they were able to ride miniature horses because they were just the right size and no one was scared to ride a horse that was much too big for them! A volunteer leads them around the arena and back so they each got to ride for a few minutes.




 In this section, the kids could lead the miniature horse through a small obstacle course. It was like leading a dog on a leash....except the Girl Scout volunteer and the horse seemed to be leading the boys instead! Malek LOVED this part, he had to have two turns, one with each horse!





Somewhere along the way they got their faces painted. Malek had a snake put on his cheek and Zayne had a spider put on his.


Zayne really doesn't like loud noises, but wanted to ride the riding lawnmower pulled train. So he rode it with his hands over his ears! It goes around the cages and they were able to see chickens and bunnies on this path. 


 There was a little maze for kids to go through, of course they had to do it on 'horse'. It was their first time on stick horses and they were too busy playing that they were galloping around instead of trying to find their way through!


And finally...the pumpkins. They were donated and not grown on site so they had already been picked. Each of them picked out their own pumpkin that we took home. Not sure if we'll paint them or carve them yet.

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