Sunflower Festival

Last month I was so excited to head to the Sunflower Festival at Gorman Farm, but things did not go as I had planned. Sophia didn't want to wear the outfit I wanted her to wear. I was hoping for pictures with the girls, but rain left the ground muddy (although the weather was beautiful the day we visited). It was crowded and part of the lure of the sunflower festival is picking your own sunflowers, so the majority of the 'photo worthy' sunflowers had already been snatched up. 

However, if you eliminate my expectations of what our visit would be like, we enjoyed ourselves. The children's garden had lots of opportunities for Sophia to explore. The farm animals were out and Sophia enjoyed getting up close and personal with them. Sophia took a mini pony ride. Pumpkin chucking was also a highlight.

Next year I will be visiting the farm the week before the festival to get some pictures with the sunflowers...and again during the festival to enjoy all of the other activities offered.

Visit to Gorman Farm October 4

HallZOOween 2015

One of our favorite October activities is visiting the zoo on the weekends leading up to Halloween. The zoo has treat stations and special activities set up on the paths. Sophia loves getting the treats and visiting with the animals. We made several trips this year, but only caught a few of the times the animals got their pumpkin treats.

Emma dressed like a pumpkin each time we visited thanks to a dog costume.

Sophia had a little more variety in her attire. She dressed as Alice and Kello Kitty from last year. Abby Cadabby and her 'Ghost Butterfly with Crystals' were new this year.

Her costume of choice this year!

Visiting with our favorite gorillas.

Read about one of our HallZOOween trips last year here.

Fall on the Farm: Blooms and Berries

I have an informal fall bucket list, but visiting the pumpkin patch was at the top of the list and it got crossed off over the weekend. We made our first trip to Blooms and Berries and had so much fun. Our time was cut a little short because of football, but Sophia loved exploring some of the farm and picking out her pumpkin.

After climbing on hay bales and riding on farm equipment, Sophia and Dave hopped on the cow train. How they both squeezed themselves onto Bessie is still a mystery to me. I really wanted a few pictures of the girls with the sunflowers, but quickly gave up on my vision of what the pictures should look like. Sophia was in the mood to explore and wanted little to do with getting her picture taken.

Sophia is the perfect age for all of the activities that are set up. She loved exploring the playground areas, racing ducks and eggs, checking out the animals, and stopping at all the photo ops.

"Mommy, you be the Big Bad Wolf!"

While Sophia played on the awesome tire swings and spider web, I snapped a few pictures of Emma with the squash.

We ended our visit to the farm with a hayride out to the pumpkin patch. I told Sophia she could get whatever pumpkin she could carry. She lifted a few before settling on one. Emma was far more intrigued by the grass than the pumpkins. 

Sophia wants to head back and swing on the tire creations again. I will definitely be checking out the corn maze on our next visit.

Halloween Scenes 2014

Halloween is a favorite holiday at our house. For the past two years we have dressed in a family theme. The tricky part is that Dave likes to dress scary and I want to dress Sophia on the cuter side. I was going to sit this year out since I am pregnant, but when Dave decided on The Mad Hatter and Alice, I dressed as the Cheshire Cat.

Sophia passed out treats for the first hour and then spent a little time trick or treating on one of the busier streets in our neighborhood.

Just a few more pictures of our evening (it was hard to limit pictures!).

Just for fun, a look back...