Pumpkin patch!

We had a fantastic outing yesterday (Sunday) at a great pumpkin patch near Doug and Linda's house. It's called Lee's Farm, and there was every kind of attraction you could possibly imagine -- hayrides, a corn maze, FRESH APPLE CIDER DONUTS (major yum!) and other stuff.

We got there quite late, around 1 or so, and the sun played tag with the clouds most of the day. Rachel had a big time going down a slide similar to the one she mastered at Oak Park; playing on a big bouncy globular structure; then screwing up her courage enough to feed a baby goat (after screaming at first, and clinging to Drew, she watched the goat eat some goat food from his hand, then decided to try it herself and was so proud of herself, as she should have been -- "Look, Mommy! I'm feeding the goats!" she said) -- then a ride on a pony named Sophie (she went around and around in a circle, with Drew holding the saddle in place); then we, Doug, Linda, Jack and Andrew trooped to the red barn and got two bags of hot, fresh apple cider donuts, hot cider, and caramel apples and had a snack; then we went back outside and Rachel played in a bouncy house until she fell and scraped her knee; then she got her face painted (a horse on one side; a chick on the other); and she and Drew went on a hayride.

In between she petted some baby chicks that Drew and I held out to her, and she and Drew went inside a kid's maze that included her sliding down a big irrigation pipe. Oh, and Drew bought her a huge bag of kettle corn, which we all munched on.

I was really tired by days' end, but we ended up going to a fantastic kid-friendly restaurant near Doug and Linda's. Rachel was extremely well-behaved, as usual; she ate most of her quesadilla and lemonade, played in the corner with the books and toys the restaurant had stashed there (the boys entertained themselves with the Wii nearby) and the adults actually got to have some conversation.

"This is so nice!" Linda kept saying, and I couldn't help remembering back when Rachel was a little baby and the boys were younger, and we'd meet at a park, and all I wanted to do was have some grown-up conversation and the kids kept interrupting. To this day, I feel as if Linda and I had only snatches of conversation during those years and I can barely remember what I've told her and what I haven't. Sort of like being a patient with dementia, I guess. "It'll get even nicer when they're older," I told Linda last night, when the kids will really be able to interact among themselves and with us and we'll be long past the difficult baby-and-toddler stages.

On the way out of the restaurant, poor Rachel screeched in terror when a life-size witch, who was standing sentry as decoration, suddenly moved and smoke came out of her mouth along with a terrible cackle. She had spent most of the day in Drew's arms, but when she was scared she reached out for Mommy. I soothed her enough to get her into the car seat and home quickly.

Oh, yeah, we picked out a pumpkin that Drew will probably carve up with Rachel on Friday or Saturday night while I make matzo ball soup and toast the pumpkin seeds (I plan to look for a recipe for toasted pumpkin seeds online -- maybe I'll make half sweet, half savory). "Know what we're doing?" Drew said as we left the pumpkin patch. "Making memories."