The Pumpkin Patch Express

We had tickets for a Friday afternoon ride on the Pumpkin Patch Express at the Museum of Life & Science. There are so many great fall activities here and this was one of our favorites so far.

 

Ready to go!

Waiting for the train

There it is!

Arriving at the pumpkin patch

Ella chose the face painting that matched her barrette. :-)

This was Emma's first painting, so we thought the hand might be best.

Decorating bags for their pumpkins

 

 

I think this is a picture of her guinea pig. :-) 

 Emma loved the stamps and stickers!

Checking out the inside of some gourdes and pumpkins

Apple!

Pumpkin Tossing!

Halloween Decorations & Surprises

 I painted these cat faces on pumpkins for the girls and they stuck jewels on them to make the faces. We picked up the kit for this at Target and the girls loved creating them!

 Here's Emma's cat pumpkin. I did help her a bit, but she put on the mouth, upside down, and the whiskers all by herself. She has an orange stripe down the middle of her cat face because she pulled off  her nose which pulled off a strip of the paint. I think it turned out cuter and more unique this way.

 Mantel decor

 We love Nightmare Before Christmas!

 I've been putting up these pumpkin lanterns for so many years and still haven't had a light bulb burn out on them!

 Tinsel Cats!

On the first day of October I set up some surprises for the girls. Nightmare Before Christmas was playing in the room and they walked in to find bags with Halloween books, a Halloween animal, and a Halloween snack. This is after they found their surprises, so it's all a bit spread about.

 

Science Safari

Ella started her Science Safari class this week and absolutely loved it! This lesson was all about swamp lands and she got to hold a frog and touch a corn snake. She also made this depiction of an alligator nest. She'll have the class every Thursday for an hour in the afternoon. Upcoming themes include bats, deadly animals, pirates, Ancient Egypt, and Archaeology.

 

Ganyard Hill Farm

We love Ganyard Hill Farm in Durham. I think it will be one of our yearly fall activities. We were there last year and visited this year on the first day that they opened.

 

Ella, holding up 4 1/2 fingers to show that she's 4 1/2 years old

Ella's holding up 2 fingers in this shot for Emma. :-)

When Emma doesn't know the specific name of an animal she just calls it "animal". :-)

Picking cotton

Hay Maze

The girls' favorite activity, the corn cribs!

 

Emma and I feeding corn to the cows through pipes that lead to their trough.

Here are the cows we were feeding. As soon as they hear someone playing in this corn crib they head over.

Emma is definitely a "feeder". She loves to feed us or any animals that will take food from her. Here she's trying to feed a bunny some of the corn from the corn crib.

 On the hayride

 Picking out some pumpkins from the patch