It was a perfect day; the sun was shining, the air was cool and crisp--what I like to call a "hot-fudge sun-day".  The dotter behaved beautifully.  Perhaps because we rented a swanky wagon, so that we wouldn't be pestered for "uppies"?  A side benefit was the fact that OmegaDotter wanted to pull the wagon a lot, rather than just sit in it.

While I stood in line for the first pony station (right near the entrance, bad idea because everyone stopped there), OmegaDad and OmegaDotter checked out the tractors.  Note the bare feet.  This child's first action upon getting into the car or arriving home is to kick off her shoes.  As a person who spent most of my childhood in bare feet, I sympathize.  We insist when we're going into stores or restaurants or other people's houses, but sometimes a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do--in this case, "drive" a tractor barefoot.  Some day she'll walk on broken glass (like her mom) and decide that shoes are Okay.

Soon enough, we decided that the first pony station was a Bad Idea, so we moved on.  The folks who run a wild animal park were there, complete with critters which they were showing off.  There was a gorgeous emerald and black boa, and this Argentinian lizard critter.  The kids, of course, were entranced.  Note the prevalence of pink.

The critter in close-up...it was truly quite grand:

We motored on:

Unpictured:  yummy chicken barbecue sandwiches, rootbeer float with homemade ice cream, the pseudo-rollercoaster ride (a 10-person box on pneumatic lifts which jerked and bucked and twisted in time to a ride through a very sci-fi rollercoaster ride movie).  Then we reached the best pony station, which had two sets of ponies going at once.  Woohoo!  I stood in line, OmegaGranny wandered off to take more pics for her blog, OmegaDad checked out something else, and the dotter waited.  Patiently.

And then rode joyfully.

Then it was pumpkin patch time.  OmegaDad and OmegaDotter scanning the (picked over) pumpkins:

OmegaMom (that would be me!) peering at a green ladybug with an intrigued dotter:

The dotter was enchanted with the multi-colored corn, so she had to collect some and then sit down and de-silk it.  The silk ended up coming home with us, as it was "noodles".

The best pumpkins had already been picked, and hauled out to the edges of the patch, so we ended up getting a nice big one from there.  Here's our li'l punkin and the big pumpkin:

Alas, this is the last year for that pumpkin patch; the folks who owned it were dealing with gummint folks on the issue of water, and also had lots of developers and folks waving money in their faces, so they ended up selling.  The Omega family (and others) will have to find a new patch to play in for next year.  In the meantime, the large pumpkin sits on our porch, awaiting mom's fine hand with the marker, the (OMG-it's-so-rusty-and-jaggedy-edged!) old drywall saw, and OmegaDad's adept sawing (which I do not watch, because the saw is so damned scary looking), and it will then be lit up at night and sitting on the old stump by the end of the porch to lure little trick-or-treaters up our driveway.

Technorati: Pumpkin patch, autumn, festivals, Halloween