Pumpkin Patch

Last weekend, we ventured out to the pumpkin patch on what was, I'm afraid, the LAST nice day of the season. It turned out to be a gorgeous fall day, thankfully! We have an amazing pumpkin patch near our house that is also a greenhouse, landscaping company and bakery. Their cupcakes are to die for! Don't even get me started on the "Down on the Farm" cupcakes! {vanilla cupcakes with maple buttercream and candied bacon on top} They were out of those when we were there, but we can't leave without one or TWELVE of them! YES...12!!! I was planning on just getting a mix six of them, but Tim didn't think he would like any of the ones I chose, so he got his own mix six! Needless to say, there are only 2 left a week later! 

They had a fabulous Corn Box. Graysen threw a huge shit fit when we had to get out. It's so awesome. I am seriously trying to figure out how to make one at our house. It is so much better than sand! There is no mess! The only thing we'd have to worry about is keeping squirrels and mice out. I think a cover would do the trick! He had so much fun scooping it and dumping it on his legs to bury them. 

 We went with a good friend of ours and her son, who is 6 weeks older than Graysen. It was so fun this year, because the boys could actually do the activities there and really enjoy it!  They have animals that you can feed and watch, {The boys really liked the chickens.}, a ginormous jumping pillow {They are still a little too small for that.}, pumpkin chucking, a huge corn maze, hay rides, "musical" pots to bang on, kettle corn, tricycle races, tires to climb on...the list goes on!

How sweet is this photo??

 They also have slides made out of jumbo, corrugated tubes. All of the kids were wizzing down to the runway landing at the bottom. Graysen wanted to go, so Tim took him to the top and let him go...

He just sat there. His pants were wet from dumping his water out into his lap in the car so he was stuck in the tunnel. It literally took him over 2 minutes to inch his way down the tube. It was quite comical. When he got to the bottom, he was ready to go again! Needless to say, we went on to something else so that they other kids could actually have a turn this season! 

 This is the best we could do for a family photo this year. Graysen was not going to sit still for anything! There were too many pumpkins to chuck, animals to feed and corn to shovel!

What a fabulous weekend it was though! It was the last nice day of the season I'm afraid! It was 32* and sleeting this morning! I'm so not ready for winter!

 Happy Fall!

MB

Cheap Entertainment: Household Items Turned Toys

I don't know why we buy any toys! Actually, it's others that buy us the toys...but either way...my son only wants to play with household items like remotes, bottles etc. I thought I'd post a mini series called "Cheap Entertainment" to show some of the creative ways we entertain our one and a half year old. Right after school got out last year, we redid our guest room/craft room {Junk Room} and turned it into an amazing toy room! Graysen does love it, but the toys in there do not get played with as much as some other random things we find around the house. Here are some examples of the things we've done lately to entertain Graysen. 

Fine motor is extremely important for little ones' development. I kept telling Tim that we need to get some lacing cards for Graysen and then it hit me...make my own! Duh! I cut Cookie Monster out of a cereal box so that it was sturdyish cardboard and then just punched holes around his head. I took an old shoelace out of a shoe that Tim never wears and Voila! Lacing Card!

 While getting supper ready one night, all Graysen wanted to do what pull everything out of the cupboard. I saw the empty spaghetti holder sitting on the counter, so I grabbed a handful of skinny straws that we had in the cupboard. (We always have a MILLION straws at our house.) There are two different sized holes in the top of the spaghetti holder to measure one serving or two, so he had a blast sticking the straws in and then shaking them out. 

 Another game that turned into being absolutely pure genius, was a game that involved paper cups (we happened to have a sleeve of Sesame Street ones in the cupboard), a muffin tin and the umpteen hundred tennis balls we have around the house. First, the game started by me stacking cups for Graysen to knock over. He then stacked them, unstacked them, etc. The dog brought one of his mini balls over to play and Graysen stuck it under a cup. Shadow hit all the cups over until he found the ball. A new game was born that stimulated both of their minds! I then brought out a muffin tin and we put the cups and balls in the holes. We tried to throw the mini balls into the cups, hid treats under the balls for Shadow and had a blast mixing and matching the items in the cups. These simple things entertained him for SO LONG! I should have been productive during that time, but it was too much fun to watch him learn and explore!

Game On!

MB