Tag Archives: Pumpkin patch

Des Fourth Birthday

October 16, 2018 shreffler

Desmond chose yet again to spend his fourth birthday out of school on a special adventure with just mom and dad to… the pumpkin patch. While waiting for the tractor to depart, Des surveys the map

Cold and muddy, he’s undeterred on his quest for the perfect pumpkin

The kind lady taking tickets at the gate, upon learning it was his birthday, offered Des a special birthday button. It took nearly 10 minutes for her to return with it, but clearly worth it.

Proud of his haul

While dad runs the pumpkins to the car, Des hops on another tractor ride

The now annual windmill photo, Des is notably more comfortable walking on grated surfaces 🙂

He was a bit trigger happy, though some apples made contact with the steel pumpkin and black cat silhouettes

While last year’s climb to the top was immediately followed by walking down the stairs, this time Des was all about the Big Slide

The yellow barn was the same loud, pneumatic chaos of foam ball fury

Desmond was endlessly tickled by the horse with what appeared to be dog-like patience and interest in pellet treats. The swing-arm feeding tray that he could control likely also played a role in his ear-to-grin and giggle fits.

Gotta feed the goats…

…but there’s no one like his #1 pal

Able to peddle his own way around the trike track with dad needing to push. It was a lot of fun until he didn’t understand that one must yield to pedestrians loading/unloading at the beginning :/

Refueling with some sandwiches and a pickle

The equivalent “fun” of paddle boats, Des enjoys the ride as mom and dad peddle (with their knees to the chest) what can be best described as a manual dune buggy. Mom takes the wheel as dad engages in vehicular photo shenanigans

Practicing his mastery of the force in the corn pit

Much more confident as a four year old, Des really enjoyed the bounce pads

Duck racing, as you do

Snack break for some apple cobbler and ice cream

It’s not a John Deere, but it’ll do

Mom and dad weren’t sure how this was going to go…

There’s sometimes a fine line between thrill and terror, but Des clearly landed on exhilarating!

To be fair, no one in Team Llama got over a condescending “bumpkin”

About sums up the day-

Opening family presents

Des first Hot Wheels track!

His own music station, for mixing his noise-scapes on a whole new level

Yeah, that’s fun

Continuing the tradition of birthday cupcakes

After half a cupcake, Ella get’s pretty wild

AppleJack Festival 2018

September 22, 2018 shreffler

After a week of dad leaving ransom-note like daily clues, it was finally revealed that Team Llama would be heading to Nebraska City for the 50th annual AppleJack Festival. After a successfully on-time departure with some bagels for the car ride,

The annual orchard pilgrimage to fetch a medium-sized bag of apples has also been a nice opportunity for a few family photos:

When Pa’s not around to pull the wagon, you gotta pull your share (of a near-empty wagon)

It’s important to understand that each subsequent photo of Eleanor consuming an apple are all different fruit at a ratio of one-to-three to those not-pictured partials starts

Des presenting his most recent “flower” find, mere seconds from the prior (and so forth)

A quick pitstop at the pumpkin patch

[Llama household, ca. Sept 18: near daily reading]
Thistle: “Have you checked the pumpkin patch?”
Duck & Goose: “The WHAT?!”

Undaunted by physical appearance, Eleanor would attempt a lunge for any pumpkin- regardless of weight

Little Ella on the Prairie

Ok, let’s pull together

As a recently confident high stepper, Eleanor immediately infers the gameplay of this part of the playground

“Hop!”

With an early check-in to the lodge, it was the perfect second-story window view for a picnic

Narrator: We now pause for a message from our sponsors-

Des gazes out upon the east orchard, or he’s the admiring the (clearly dead) bug still attached to the extended window sill. Who knows.

Des digs in to his share of the apple pie à la mode

Eleanor cocoons peacefully into the hammock

Explore explores his comfort of heights atop a large rope-spiderweb

And high up a cardinal perch

Plant trees…

…raise children

Eleanor Shreffler, intrepid walker of long distances

Dad’s “it’s cool, we’ll wing it” approach to pizza sourcing and resource management resulted in even a Pizza Hut carryout order pushing dinner timelines well beyond normal. Desmond has his first drive-through food experience to fuel the chips-and-guac requirements for a car DJ chip party, and before you knew it, the pizza was ready.

With the beyond-overtired little sister zonked out (rodeo’d down?) for the night, there was still time for a late-night swim

Turning 3

October 16, 2017 shreffler

To celebrate Desmond turning three, mom and dad took the day off work to visit the pumpkin patch. Sister was in utero last time, but today was just the three.

Hayrack ride out to the pumpkin patch, it was a beautiful autumn day

THIS MANY!!!

Des wanted to get a second, more substantial pumpkin. Dad said he could have it, if he could pick it up. A toddler’s rendition of the Sword in the Stone

Dad pretending not to be fighting back significant nausea

Vala’s Pumpkin Patch is one part pumpkin patch and orchard and another part amusement park. Seen here is the animatronic cows and other barnyard critters playing bluegrass interwoven with riddles and jokes. Somehow we walked past this earworm barn 14 times in a single visit.

Des ventured out onto the windmill platform all by himself, but wasn’t too thrilled upon looking down, so mom walked out as well. He’s still not a fan of grated-design: the caboose platform at the Durham, the staircase of the old market parking garage…

For being generally disinterested interested with swings, Des was surprisingly content with riding the zip line.

Mom had to into the action (and dad too)

Might be time for some new outdoor toys next spring

Desmond toddlering the apple cannon (looking closely, an apple can be seen mid-air)

Seriously fun

Tractor ✔️

The apple pie mostly made up for the sad potato soup

Oddly enough, the sheep waiting Des’ pellets took the same resting position as Max with his head in your lap waiting for a head rub

The sheep gobbled up the treats

That is a sheep tongue stretching the distance for a few more pellets

An entire multi-floor barn is dedicated to a complex pneumatic system for a truly frantic ball-flying rush

Though it quickly turned into a ball hoarding sprint…

…which ended in loss, certain disappointment and tears

Making it rain corn

Also walked out on the massive bubble, though ended up preferring seated fun

Duck water races, naturally

This cool three-year-old going with dad to get sister at daycare

Desmond’s present: a little sister to always (voluntarily, never any cajoling) share all of his toys with

Both kids going immediately to building with the new Squigz like at Joslyn’s Discovery Room

“Oh, a book!” Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax

A crane truck to take apart and reassemble

Special birthday dinner and a movie, with a viewing of Cars 2 (of course)

Reading The Lorax before bed (during the second reading the night after, Des picked up on the tragic nature of the ending and was clearly distraught)

From Mom: Happy 3rd birthday to this wonderful creature. He has taught me joy and love in ways I could have never dreamed. He can’t get enough Star Wars, tractors, rocket ships, The Beatles and his dad.

From Dad: Your toddler-sized heart knows no stranger, laughs with full life like your mother, reads every book in sight, hugs so hard, finds pleasure in helping, is curious about so many things. You struggle with mouse-and-elephant problems too like the rest of us, but I’m so fortunate to be your father, growing with you hand-in-hand. Welcome to three, Desi.

September 30th, 2017

September 30, 2017 shreffler

While the annual trip to the AppleJack Festival didn’t happen this year, it was perhaps even more enjoyable to visit Kimmel Orchard without the mob of people

Des growing and growing

Ella’s hayrack ride face

Desmond was a bit more animated, though uncertain if it was the ride or the sight of the tractor

Like brother, like sister. Initially she wasn’t into it, but after mom took a starter bite to get the juices going, Eleanor clearly saw what the fuss was all about.