Aerlie Farms Outing

This morning, Michele and I took advantage of the statewide inservice no-school day, by taking our kids to Aerlie Farms and their sweet pumpkin patch.

This is our second year going there - and while we weren't very excited about the admission charge this year, the fact that the kids were entertained for over two hours says something about how much they enjoyed it.

Here's a pic of the boys hiding in one of the dead-ends of the hay bale maze - and another shot of them ending up at the bottom together after their run down the tunnel slide.


We've decided that the only way to get a group picture of these guys is to have them do something silly. These two attempts kind of worked.


Mikayla is perched atop a hay bale "fort" in this shot.

Moving on to the "farm" part of things - Nati with "Hairy" the donkey.
This goat bit! I was actually worried I wasn't going to get my pinky finger back once he clamped down on it.

This little dairy calf is named Charlie. Nati was able to help feed him a bottle and we all got a chance at petting him. After the feeding, he was still eager to "suckle" - and if given the opportunity, used our hands as his pacifier.




This is the entrance to the corn maze. While not nearly as elaborate or difficult as Lone Pine Farm's - it was still a time occupier - taking us all about 15 minutes to get through. The boys and Nati went in their own group and then Mikayla and Ellie led the way for us. It was great because they were so eager to find their way, that they'd do the work of checking out the (short) dead ends and come quickly back to report we'd gone the wrong way.... =)

A couple of posed shots on the flatbed truck.....


Of course, any pumpkin farm visit wouldn't be complete without the actual picking out of a pumpkin. We were even blessed with a wagon ride out to the patch. The great thing about this farm is that they have all sorts of varieties of pumpkins - white ones, "Cinderella" (dark orange/red and flat) variety, and striped ones. It's a lot of fun, but makes decision making extra hard.


Talk about a glorious day to celebrate the bounty and fun of October. These are the days of memories in the making!