Pumpkin Patch

October 20, 2012

Last weekend, our little family took a trip to a cute little pumpkin patch in Houston called the Halter Pumpkin Patch Festival. It was a great little place run by kind people and it was cheap! In fact, we only had to buy a ticket for Luke. Jeff and I were free! And the best part? There were miniature horses EVERYWHERE! Luke and I were in heaven!

Getting things off to a good start with a tractor-pulled hayride and a very sweet driver volunteering to take our picture.

This little guy was about the same size as his miniature horse pals. Adorable.

Luke got to lead a horse through an obstacle course! He looked so grown up!

Yeah, he fell here. That's when Jeff stepped in for a little support.

MASSIVE red ants!! Seriously, Texas??

I'm not sure if Luke is trying to look up this horse's nose, but he did this to most of the horse's he encountered. He's a curious one!

Looking like he knows exactly what he's doing!

"Yzma, put your hands in the air!" This was kind of a high-speed trackless-train after all.

Luke went straight for the biggest pumpkins in the patch.

Little help, Dad!

Forget the pumpkins, there's a cat!

Even without cats walking by to distract him, Luke thought the funnest thing to do with the pumpkins was to drop them. Don't worry, we put a stop to that real quick!

Cheese.

Did I mention the horses were Luke's and my favorite part?? I would have been perfectly happy ignoring everything else and just going around petting all of the horses.

So sweet!

This sweet little horse put his nose between the bars a couple of times to nuzzle Luke. Luke took that as an invitation and went in for another kiss ...

Rejected! The horse pulled his head back in just before Luke could plant one on his nose. Luke was still offended the next day and told Grandma and Grandpa Lamb, "Horsie no let me kiss him. Horsie not nice to me!"

Jeff caught me in the middle of a hair flip. I give you permission to laugh.

Haunted trail

I did NOT expect the monsters in there to be this creepy! Luke went with his usual tactic when something scares him: a nervous "hi" and a friendly wave. He must think if he's nice, the monster will be too.

Monster #2. Not quite as scary considering we could see her long blond hair and bare (clearly human) arms.

Jeff told Luke to run away from the werewolf, just so he could run him right into a third monster that was waiting just a few yards away!

Not again!

Luke decided he needed to pet every spider he could find! I'm pretty sure that's not what the makers of the haunted trail intended ...

How cute is this little pony cart?? Before Luke went for a ride, there was a little mommy miniature horse pulling it with her tiny baby running alongside her! I almost passed out from the cuteness!

The kiddie playground was the most rundown part of the property. Clearly, not the priority, but I don't think all of the kids climbing all over it noticed. Luke could have spent hours in there. It took some convincing to get him to leave.

Luke made dirt castles out of these old abandoned flower pots ...

And smashed them.

Escaping out the window. I hope this isn't a glimpse 15 years into the future.

This pig. It was love at first sight.

Those cheeks!

We weren't allowed to touch her though because she was pregnant and grumpy.

I don't blame her after seeing that big belly brushing the ground!

Can't leave without one more ride on the train!

Another run-in with our cat friend on our way out.

We jumped on the hayride back to our car, and while we waited for everyone else to climb on, I decided to grab one final cute family picture, but that turned out to be easier said than done...

Almost! Luke wasn't totally committed to smiling for the picture, so I promised him there was a Dum Dum in my purse with his name on it, if he would give me a really good smile for the next one.

Well, there's no denying he put some serious effort into this one. I just gave up and gave him the Dum Dum.

I started to walk back to the car, only to realize that Luke was caught in a trance watching the still running tractor.

The driver, a sweet white-haired older man, noticed and climbed down from the tractor, walked over and picked Luke up and put him in the driver's seat (I was impressed a man that age could heft that 35-pound boy up there like that). Like I said, this place is run by good, kind people. It was an awesome day.