Field Trip

Field trip to the pumpkin patch, by the numbers:

Preschoolers: 16
Pumpkins picked: 2
Goats petted: 3
Pumpkins shot from a cannon: 1
Acres of corn maze navigated: 4
Pounds of dirt carried home on clothing and in hair: approximately 5


Matt went on his first real field trip today. This meant he got to ride on a school bus, something he's been begging to do for months. His best friend Cameron chickened out at the last minute and decided to ride with his mom, but Matt went on without him and bravely boarded the bus.



He apparently loved the whole bus experience; on the way home, he was the only one who didn't fall asleep - his teacher said he was too busy just looking out the window and checking everything out.

We went to the same pumpkin patch we've been to the past couple of years - it's a good one, with a hayride, a corn maze, and petting zoo. When we got there, we took a class picture with the spider hay bales. Trying to get all sixteen of the children to look at the camera was a losing cause, but it's still cute.



Then we took the tractor/hayride out to the pumpkin patch and selected our tiny free pumpkins. Matt's teacher very smartly labeled all the pumpkins to prevent any disputes.






He also got to sit in a big tractor tire again, something he enjoyed last year tremendously.



When we returned, they fired up the pumpkin chunker. It's basically a cannon that shoots out pumpkins at a high velocity. Very cool. The kids love it. My favorite part came at the end of the countdown, when one of Matt's classmates shouted "Fire in the hole!" God only knows where he picked that up.

Waiting for the pumpkin cannon to fire:


And then watching it in action:


We did the petting zoo,






and then did the corn mazes. Matt's teacher is a far braver woman than I - I would have never taken sixteen preschoolers into a four-acre corn maze. But the kids loved it and we all made it out intact. We also explored a tee-pee, played on the playground, and took a small hike through the woods, with time for one last group picture before we boarded the bus.




By the end of the day we were all filthy and totally exhausted, but Matt and the rest of the kids had a very good time. And I have a whole new level of respect for his teachers - those are some seriously hard-working women. Whew.