Saturday Darla and I took Jack, Sam, Owen, and Maci to Bandy’s Pumpkin Patch.

They have a fantastic corn maze, hay rides, a scene to stick heads in for photos, a big corn gun, two huge slides, a bouncy house, three big round containers for squirming in the corn, snacks and drinks, and PUMPKINS!  It was an awesome day!

The good folks at the ticket booth give each of us a paper that we have to punch at six different locations throughout the maze.  If we could find them all, we got a button.

Darla, Owen, and Maci gave up after the first two finds, so the boys and I persevered for another hour and a half trying to find the next four.  It was tough!  Jack found four of them, Sam found one, and I found one.  Mine was pure accident, just about ran into it.  The boys were thrilled that they got their button because we had a couple of let’s-give-up moments.  Each point had a map that only told us where we were, not where the other points were to be found.

By the time the boys and I got out of the maze, my feet hurt and I was pooped!  We ran into a few other kids that were having trouble finding the points as well, so in the end there were six of us yelling back and forth.

We went around several circles; we went through places we had been previously several times.  I have to admit, sometimes the boys would say, “We’ve already been that way, Gigi!”  But I was just so sure we hadn’t!  At one point as we were walking along the edge of the maze we did contemplate for just a moment doing the unthinkable and walking through the corn to the treeline.  I am very glad we didn’t.

While the boys and I were muddling through the maze, Darla, Owen, and Maci went for a hayride through the pumpkin patch.

Next was a trek through the big barn to go down the big slides, jump in the bouncy house, and sink into corn.

Jack and Sam found the corn shooter.  That was an interesting outfit.  They each got to pick out three ears of corn to be inserted into this big gun.  Then they had to aim for a target out in the field.

Shooting was sort of like playing golf; there was a lot of slicing and hooking going on with that corn when it came flying out of the gun.  Right when you thought it would hit the target, it would go right or left.  Very frustrating… and costly.  Sam got a direct hit and sent the target swinging, so Jack put everything he had in it (not to be outdone by the little brother) but couldn’t overcome the hook and the slice.

The only thing left to do was pick out their pumpkins.  Owen already had a wagon full of little pumpkins, about 20, that he had picked out for different people.  When I told him Mawmaw would only let us get one, he pointed to one and said, “But that one was for you.”  The little guy knew exactly which one he had picked out for each person.