Peter was on a business trip in San Diego Tuesday through Friday this week.  The girls and I stayed busy with activities every morning and evening.  A playdate, the children’s museum and a giant batch of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies were all great distractions.  We also kept in touch with Daddy through phone calls, texts and even a video call (gotta love technology), but we are all thrilled that Peter is home again.  Whew!

My favorite text conversation from the week:

Now that Peter is home, today was a day for some family fun.  No, we did not go adopt a puppy.  We went to a farm for all things autumnal!

The girls loved the corn box where they could scoop and dig and hunt for the buried plastic animals:

Look what Alethea found buried in the corn… (We took this picture just for you, Aunt Genna!)They had lots of great things for the kids to do including pedal cars, a mini hay bale maze and some photo opp cutout thingies (yes, that is the technical term).

We all climbed up on the hay bale pile and snagged a passing stranger to take a family photo…

… and then we hopped aboard the “hay ride” to ride on out to the pumpkin patch.  (Does it annoy anyone else when they call something a ‘hay ride’ but there isn’t any hay on the wagon?)

Alethea and I selected a pumpkin from the field that had some real character, but then Peter said it was the “Charlie Brown Christmas tree of pumpkins”, so when we got back to the farm store, we let the girls each pick out a mini pumpkin instead, which was cheaper and the girls were happier with each having their own anyway.

After depositing the pumpkins in the car, we made a quick trip around the farm yard to visit the animals, and then ended our adventure taking our annual Pile of Pumpkins Pictures.  This is always one of my favorite pictures of the year.  (You can check out Alethea’s 2010 pic HERE, and last year’s shots of both girls HERE.)  Unfortunately this year the girls were tired, hungry and a little wet from the heavy mist, so I tried bribing them with the promise of hot chocolate when we got home.

It worked on Alethea:

Not so much with Lydia:

Oh well.  Like I said to Peter on our way out, “It wouldn’t be a true family outing if someone wasn’t leaving in tears.”

The girls are doing better now that they’ve had some food and a little down time, so we’re planning on rounding out our family fun day with a bonfire and some s’mores.  Come on over and join us!