Pumpkin Patch

Since I was up taking care of Paxton anyway, and Frankenstorm hasn't knocked out our power yet (though we're hardly out of the woods), I might as well do a little bloggin', right?  Right!

Kendra's Preschool class took their first field trip the week before last.  The usual class was cancelled and we all met up with the high school students at a small farm just outside of town to go to a pumpkin patch.  I took the opportunity to leave the boys home with the babysitter and had a special little date with Kendra, just her and me.  I loved that.  The boys are awesome and our family would not be complete without them, but sometimes I miss that special time Kendra and I had one on one before Elliot was born.

We rode out to the patch in a trailer hitched up to a tractor and got our pick of the pumpkins.  There were still lots to chose from, and we searched around for a nice Kendra-sized one just for her.

After the tractor brought us back to the farm, we had some time to wander around.  They had a little corn "maze" we enjoyed (though it was less of a maze and more of a loop) strolling through a couple of times.

I have no idea what she's pointing to, I think this is just her pose of the day...

 There was also some livestock to take a look at, and all the children got quite a kick of out it.  Kendra was the first one to grab straw and start offering it to the cows, and soon there were lots of handfuls of the stuff getting shoved towards big wet noses.

My first trip with small children to a pumpkin patch was ten years ago when I went with the class I worked with at a daycare center during my second year of college, and I also went while I was a nanny.  Kendra and I went to a different farm with our local friends our first fall here, but this was the first "school" trip and it was way weird for me to be a parent and not a teacher.  It was also super weird to be with the high school students.  I am thirty years old, I have traveled multiple corners of the world, I have a family of my own that includes three children and hopes for more--how do I not feel like a grown up?!

Anyway.

There are actually two classes of students who teach Kendra's preschool class and one of them gathered to take a picture, so I snapped one, too.  Unfortunately this class doesn't have either of the girls who are particularly attached to Kendra--hopefully I can get pictures of them another time.

What's worth noting about this picture is the ratio of high school students to preschool students.  Most preschools have several students to a teacher (the daycare I worked at tried to keep it 5:1) but this situation has multiple teachers to a student, it's wild.  Not all of the preschoolers are in this picture but there actually are only five or six missing.  Not hard to see why any child wouldn't have a ball here, it's complete individual attention!

I had met the students at the open house before the preschool began, but it was fun to get to know them a little more and see them in action.  They're a fun group and it was definitely a fun trip!