Autumnal

We spent a day at Montpelier Farms in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, and LOVED it!  I was so excited about this outing and talked about it all the week prior.  It lived up to all my expectations!

The day did get off to a rocky start.  We walked into the fabulous outdoor wonderland, with all kinds of fun activities, and at Little Guy's request, made our first stop at the paint-a-pumpkin booth.  Where he suddenly and without explanation began to pitch a HUGE fit.  Including screaming, kicking the painting table, and throwing {violently!} the cups of paint that had just been poured for him.  So, he and the Mister headed back to the car, where Little Guy screamed out his demons, and Buddy Boy and I headed to the corn pen for a little play that was just his speed {who got the better end of those parental duties???}.  A sandbox made of dried corn kernels.  He loved it!  And so did Little Guy, once he was fit to return to civilization.

The Mister's got a real hangup about using a stroller.  He just doesn't like the inconvenience it can present with stairs, crowds, etc.  So he carries Buddy Boy around in a hiking backpack, and it suits both of them just fine.  I think Buddy Boy likes the view.  Here, he was admiring alpacas!

There was a cute market on the farm, where we bought the most wonderful caramel apples and some delicious strawberry rhubarb preserves.  And hung out in the oversized chairs.

My firstborn and 12 weeks of baby #3!

Little Guy's favorite part was the hill slide.  He went down with me about ten times and then got brave enough to do it on his own.  He was so proud!

The #1 thing I wanted to do was take a hay ride.  Hay rides just seem so quintessentially autumnal.

But as it turned out, the day was fairly warm and the hay ride rather bumpy, and by the end, I was glad we'd done it, but glad it wasn't any longer.  I feared morning sickness was going to rear its ugly head right there in the middle of that cornfield.  That would have been embarrassing.

The Mister and I have a standing disagreement on what constitutes a bribe.  I think a carefully worded advertisement of the good things that are to come, once something else is done, with the parental assumption that that thing will be done, regardless {rather than an "if you do this, then you'll get that" promise} does not a bribe make.  The Mister says this is all semantics.  I say semantics are important.  Either way, I've neither bribed nor non-bribed my children for a picture ever before {I'd rather catch them in a natural moment}, but I was just dying for a cute pumpkin patch picture of the boys.  And I think my announcement that just as soon as we'd taken a pumpkin picture, we were on our way to the cotton candy booth, got pretty good results, don't you?

Little Guy decided on a little pumpkin-sittin' alone time to eat his cotton candy.

But that's ok, because he left behind a whole apple cider slushie for Buddy Boy and me to share.  And those are just about the best things I've ever tasted.  I may have had three that day.

Montpelier Farms...we'll see y'all next year!