Pumpkin Patch

This past Saturday, my family and I may have started a new Howland tradition. We drove out to Spooner Farms and picked out pumpkins that we will eventually carve. We saw pumpkin sling shot games, duck races, and a corn maze. There were so many fall festivities occurring that I could barely contain myself. Ava bug (who normally doesn't warm up to new places fast) was so intrigued by the many, many rows of pumpkins. As soon as we put her down, she didn't want to stand still. She'd run to a small pumpkin and then she'd run to a larger one... she'd glance (occasionally) back at us just to make sure that we were still behind her. My favorite part was watching her attempt to lift the massive pumpkins. Justin was always there to lend a helping hand, and the look on her face once he'd lift a pumpkin for her... Daddy is definitely her hero.

Another really cool thing happened while at Spooner farms. I ran into an old school mate of mine.. who also happens to be the author of a book I'm rather fond of right now. His name is Jefferson Bethke and he is the author of the book Jesus >Religion. I literally called out his name from my passenger side window, just to say that my husband and I were fans! It was cool to see his little family doing normal things like normal people. I guess you could say he's really in the public eye these days; I really enjoyed just seeing someone in his position heading out to a local farm to pick out pumpkins with his family. I honestly wish I would have had my copy of his book with me... an autograph would have been awesome. If you haven't had a chance to pick up a copy of this book, DO IT. It is most definitely a good read.

Back to the festivities... I ended up purchasing a hay bale.. yep.. this girl right here. I'm hoping to use it as a prop for Ava bug's halloween pictures (be on the lookout for those). We have a ton of Halloween decorations just sitting around the house that need to be put up. I'm hoping we get that done in the next couple of days. Last year we learned our lesson with carving pumpkins too early, so it looks like pumpkin seeds, pumpkin stencils, and pumpkin carving won't happen for at least a few more weeks. I'm perfectly okay with that. I think we are going to make it a family affair and invite my family over to carve with us. This time of year is my absolute favorite, and I'm really grateful that having family involved is even an option.

Here are a few pictures from our time at the farm. I'm really starting to love manual mode on my camera! A couple of them are edited and a couple of them are raw images. I'm really glad I was able to document Ava's first time doing something like this through pictures. In honor of  the national babywearing week, I included a baby wearing, nursing, soothing my toddler photo of my own. Because what would a pumpkin patch visit be without all of those things?

Happy Monday all! 

♥- Leilani