Fender's Farm

Pictures from our 2nd annual fall trip to the farm!  Yes, I think this is going to be a yearly tradition.  We have a lot of fun and the farm had a lot of new changes this year, so I suppose they will always be adding new surprises!  This was Matthew's first time free from the stroller and he soaked every bit of it up.  Eric was a bit cranky and was NOT loving every part of it, but John DID wake him up from a nap so we could go.  I didn't have the time or patience to edit these pictures like I usually do before I post.  I took over 150 pictures and still had trouble narrowing it down, so there's a lot here!

They LOVED the giant slide!

They added these cows that you could "milk".  City boy John was a pro!  Matthew LOVED it!  He was very intent on the milking process.  He started standing, then decided to pull up a stool and really get to work.  It was so cute.  Eric was not thrilled we took him away from the slide...

John really wanted to do the corn maze this year.  We didn't do it last year because of the stroller and because Eric was still little.  Matthew loved that too.  He was excited to determine the twists and turns of the maze.  Eric cried the WHOLE. WAY. THROUGH.  I couldn't determine if he was scared or was just unhappy about having to walk through large stalks of corn as opposed to playing on the playground.  We ended up in a circle and back at the front, so I just took Eric out while Matthew and John tried to make their way through the whole thing.  I made Eric sit at the picnic table and wait for them.  We didn't have to wait long though.  Matthew chose the path once again and they ended right back up at the beginning again.

After the corn maze, we took them to the playground to get some energy out.

When the "hayride" was set to go we jumped on.  The hayride (minus the hay) takes you to another section of the farm where they have animals the kids can touch and feed, a giant jumping "thing" (that was new), a zipline, a corn kernel box, some slides, and a giant pipe swing.  We spent a lot of time here.

Matthew LOVED the animals.  No fear at all.  I was more afraid he was gonna smack one of those goats hard enough for it to react.  Eric?  He didn't touch the animals at all.

Next on to the jumpy thing.  I think the adults spent more time on this than the kids did.

(I love that  ^ picture!)

Matthew decided he had had enough jumping, so I took him to the corn kernel box.  I love this thing.  I wish we could set one of these up as opposed to sand.  

And the pipe swing

(He was getting sleepy ^)

Then it was time to head back to the other side again to watch the pigs race and see the pumpkins.  We had spent 2 hours here already!  We cook the little "pumpkin carriages" back.  It was a bit more bumpy than the hay ride and it made Matthew a bit more nervous, but he did great!

They played with some corn by the corn field and then they went to try to pick up pumpkins.  You know I can never get enough of those huggin' pics!  I'm going to keep telling them to do it until they refuse.