Picking Pumpkins with Preschoolers

We got to go to a new to us pumpkin patch this year.  Anna got a preview of it Saturday with Grandma and Grandpa, as it was one of the farms they stopped at on the farm tour.  

One of the little extras this farm has is a butterfly house filled with all the flowers butterflies love.  They mostly had monarch and swallowtail butterflies.  We got a great hands-on lesson about the butterflies, what plants to look for to find eggs and teeny tiny baby caterpillars, where to find big fat caterpillars ready to go into their J formation and form a chrysalis and which caterpillar would turn into which butterfly.  It was really cool for the kids to see butterflies in every stage of life. I posted a couple of my butterfly pictures here.

Here is Anna with her friend J.  They are playing with a Woolly-bear caterpillar.  Did you know they turn into moths?  

Anna really really wanted to ride on the tricycles, she tried every bike they had, looking for one she could easily ride, and never did find one she could master.  All the kids really miss having a paved driveway and street to ride their bikes on.  I keep hoping they will get over it and just ride them anyway, but it hasn't happened yet.  

The "pool" of corn kernels was where she spent most of her time, as did many of the other kids.  They had so much fun covering limbs, digging down deep and "landing" in the kernels.   

It took a little bit but she finally settled on a beautiful squatty pumpkin she is quite proud of.  We're getting quite a nice assortment of pumpkins at the house.  Alex's Kindergarten class went yesterday and he brought home a nice oval shaped pumpkin.  I'm waiting to get some big carving pumpkins so they don't rot waiting to be carved.   But we're looking forward to having friends over for an afternoon of carving. 

We were to BOOS (Bring our own snack) and took a trail mix of popcorn, pretzels, cheez-its, raisins, M&Ms and candy corns.  Very tasty and easy to put together for classroom parties. 

Family Farming

This weekend was one of our families favorite activities - the local farm tour. We've managed to visit new farms each year and it's always a great mix of education and fun.  The girls went with Grandma and Grandpa after Emily's early morning soccer game and spent most of the morning and early afternoon visiting seven different farms.  

The boys went with us to two farms after Sam's early afternoon game.  Our favorite stop was a family run beef and pork farm.  If was their first year participating in the tour and they did a fabulous job. 

These little piglets are about a week old.  I am always surprised at how quickly animals grow in comparison to humans.  By 5-6 weeks the piglets are weened and by 6 months they are considered adults.  The flip side is that by about 4 they are considered done and sent to market. 

Like many Kansas farms, this is a family run operation with multiple generations and families working together to make the operation work.  They've raised hogs for fifty years or so, and recently a branch of the family added beef to the farm's offerings.  They raise a pure bread of cows from Germany that can be used for both beef and milk (though they only use them for beef).  They grow their own hay and corn so they can prepare their own feed mix for the animals. 
 

They send all their bulls to market to maintain genetic diversity.  This guy was getting a hair cut while we were there.  Getting all preened for the American Royal.  
 

Sam and Alex were really excited when the farmer said it was okay for them to climb the bails of hay.  So while the adults asked questions about the cows, farm and how to order their meat, the boys climbed and jumped and climbed and jumped until it was time to get back on the tracker and move on.