My Project 52: KATC Pumpkin Patch Trip

It was a wet one this year, and I mean absolutely pouring down rain.

The kind of rain storm that makes you want to just forego the whole wagon ride thing and get back in the car and stop at Starbucks for a hot chocolate.

Looking outside at the sky the morning of the "parent led" field trip I was optimistic that the weather would be ok. By ok, I mean a little rain shower here and there. We are from Washington and we can handle a little rain. So I decided to go ahead and get all the kids ready for a morning at the pumpkin patch. We were about half a mile from the farm when the sky all of a sudden took on a very dark shade of grey. By this time the kids had already spotted the pumpkin patch and there was no turning back. I was hoping that the dark sky would move in the opposite direction. I parked, fed Jerek, loaded him in the ergo and then got Hanna and Jacob as ready and as a waterproof as I could. We sprinted (as fast as one can with 3 kids- one in the ergo and 1 with over sized rain boots) through the parking lot safely to the barn for cover. Luckily it was only a matter of minutes before Jeremy arrived to help out. Unfortunately we missed the first wagon trip out to the field. Not cool when your trying to get done asap. The one pro about parent led field trips is that you can leave whenever you want and not feel too guilty. However, we didn't leave as soon as I would have liked. If it was up to me we would have left upon arrival. We kept the kids entertained with ducky races, a hay maze and a corn kernel sand box type thing that were under cover until the next wagon was ready. The rain had let up a little by the time we hopped on and I thought things were looking up at this point. The wagon dropped us off and left us to find the perfect pumpkin in a field of mud. We hurried the kids in picking their pumpkins as the rain storm was coming back with a vengeance and there was no cover in sight. Once Hanna and Jacob were happy with the pumpkins they found we headed for the road to wait for the wagon to come back and get us. It felt like we were stranded as we waited, all huddled under 1 umbrella (thanks Katie) looking down the road for any sign of the wagon to come and save us from this torrential downpour that we were in the midst of. About 20 minutes later the wagon arrived and picked up a large load of rather cold, miserable, soaking wet, muddy parents and preschoolers. Needless to say the parent led field trip came to an end when the wagon arrived back at the barn. Jeremy and I had the kids stripped down and in the car in no time! I'm not sure what I would have done without Jeremy helping out. He was the one who carried the rather large ghost pumpkin that Jacob choose and my cute Cinderella pumpkin. If it weren't for him, the kids would have ended up with some tiny little pumpkin that they would've had to carry themselves, and I wouldn't have scored such a cool Cinderella pumpkin.