Thursday

Today we had such a great day.  We had a really fun field trip.  I took the kids to the Desert Botanical Gardens Pumpkin Festival, and the Mariposa Monarch exhibit.  Both were very fun.  We started out going to the butterfly exhibit.  I've never seen so many Monarch butterflies in my life.  They were so beautiful, graceful, and delicate.  There were hundreds of the butterflies resting on the sides and roof of the tent we were in,when something startled them.  All of a sudden we were surrounded by hundreds of butterflies.  It was amazing.  Even Amelia noticed.  All of the kids were in awe.  It was a really neat experience.  Unfortunately I didn't have my camera on me.  It was left in the car.  Once we left the butterflies, we went back to the car to pick-up the camera.  We went back to the area where they were having the Pumpkin Festival.  We waited in line for the hayride to take us to the pumpkin patch.  The hayride was bumpy and Amelia was mad and hungry.  Once we arrived at the patch each of the kids were able to pick any pumpkin they wanted.  My rule was "If you can carry it, you can have it".  Michael's eyes were bigger than his muscles, but he managed to carry his very big pumpkin around.  There were supplies there to decorate the pumpkins, so we sat there for about half an hour decorating them, and feeding Amelia.  Once she was fed, we went to the petting zoo portion of the festival.  Burke was afraid of the tiny chickens, but not of the miniature horse.  He pet all the animals they had.  I have always been against petting zoos (it's the germs), but as part of that idealistic childhood that I want them to have I let them go.  Tommy had a bit of an allergy problem, but they all loved it.  Once we finished petting the animals, we gathered the pumpkins and I took the kids picture on a John Deere tractor.  We took the hayride back to the other festivities where the kids played a lot of games and did a few art projects.  It was a really fun time, and I loved seeing the kids enjoy themselves so much.  I love my job.

The boys decorated theirs with all things Harry Potter.

When you arrive at the pumpkin patch, you have to
 go through a hay maze to make it to the activities

There was live music, too.  They were really good.