Saturday, October 15, 2011

Our Pumpkin Patch Visit

What a great day! After a hardy breakfast of homemade bread (more on that later) and homemade apple sauce, I spent the rest of the day at a local farm with my boys. The last two years we have chosen Johnson Farms as our pumpkin patch destination out of several options in the Kansas City area. I can think of seven just off the top of my head. We like Johnsons for several reasons. It is one of the closest to our home, the corn maze is included in the entry price, they have a ton of activities besides the pumpkins and corn maze such as hay bales to climb on, a wood maze, wooden climbing toys and slides, swings, a pumpkin shooter, pig races, animals to see, and more. There are many vignettes to be found for great fall pictures of the children and lets not forget that wonderful roasted sweet corn! I also enjoy the green house and u-pick fields that are still operating. I was thoroughly delighted to find u-pick flowers available. We loaded up on sunflowers, zinnias, and cosmos in every shade imaginable. Even my oldest enjoyed making his own bouquet. And they were a steal. I think they price them the same as the vegetables and flowers don't weigh very much. We walked out with an arm full of beautiful flowers for under a $1 in addition to our pumpkins of course.

You can find all of their info here: http://www.johnsonfarms.net/

My youngest taking off through the maze.

The Perfect Pumpkin!
I do have one gripe. I could have done with out the Michael Jackson blaring through the entire yard where the majority of the activities are all day long. It just didn't fit. Maybe some folk or blue grass, or nothing at all would have been fine. Even the patriotic stuff they were playing earlier in the day was ok. Could have done without Michael though.

When we got home, my dear oldest son decided he was going to take care of dinner. He heated up the left over pizza, set the table beautifully with our flowers from the farm, and decided to make strawberry atole as a special treat. (For those not familiar with it, atole is a corn starch based drink, similar to carnation instant breakfast.) He thought that was a more grown up option than just plain old chocolate milk. So we sat down to our pizza, Doritos, pecans, atole, and Dr. Pepper (which was served in wine glasses) and enjoyed a wonderful meal together. Perhaps not a particularly rounded, healthful meal, but a great time spent together all the same.


Fascinated by the chicks.
So many to choose from!





















Back to the bread. There was no change at all. Putting the entire three loaf recipe into two pans did not increase the size of the loaves one bit. I'm hoping now that it is just that the yeast was old and needed replacing. It's on the grocery list and I will try again soon. If anyone out there has any input as to why my loaves are not fully rising I would be glad to hear it!

















I'll end with the bouquets we made from our cut flowers that we brought home from the farm. Check out those dark, dark red sunflowers. So pretty!









4 comments:

  1. Looks like a fun weekend, I love your flower bouquets! We were at a pumpkin patch this weekend as well- Fall is such a wonderful time of year! ~April

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks! I absolutely love fall. All the color and abundance, warm fires in the hearth and hot chocolate and cider. Oh, and pumpkin pie :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Looks like you had a wonderful weekend...and Michael Jackson music...I would not have enjoyed that as well...maybe country and western...or how about nothing at all...that is even better.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I totally agree. The peace that can be found on the farm is far out of reach when pop music is blaring through loud speakers. I do love me some Michael Jackson music, but there's a time and a place.

    ReplyDelete