the pimpin' patch

she had me at "corn box," "huge slide," and pictures of goats under boats.

one of the blogs i follow (friend of a friend + college connection) is the mommy of a sweet little toddler named ella and just recently a set of boy/girl miracle twins born at 29 weeks (though they had been trying to come from about 20 weeks on...seriously, little miracles). in fact i think our 40 week due dates were only like 2 days apart, so this would have been like me having layla and another baby back at the end of august. the great news is that both babies are thriving even though they haven't yet reach gestationally full term and may be headed home soon. so stinking amazing! sarah, the mommy, had such incredible faith throughout this trying pregnancy and it has been so cool to see her prayers being answered.

well they recently took big sister ella to a pumpkin patch and posted about it. as soon as i saw these pictures and descriptions i knew we HAD to go there. i came out of my quiet following stalker shadow and asked sarah where they found this gem of a patch. the answer was corndawgs in loganville, GA. now this is nowhere near where we live, but i knew we HAD to go. it was $12 for each adult, but there was SOOOOOOOOO much stuff to do and see that was included. until i read about corndawgs i was kind of bleh about paying $20 for jesse and me just to be able to let judah buy a pumpkin, take a hay ride and see a sheep since most of the places around here only have those things and maybe a corn maze to offer.

but corndawgs. ah-mazing. so worth the 3 hours total in the car and $24 of admission. and maybe $15 more of batter-dipped, fried concessions.

even though kids under 2 were free, he got an admission bracelet that kind of freaked him out and came off not long afterward. first accessory: fail. that's cool, i never really liked guys with cuff bracelets anyway.

he's really just protesting wearing it, but it was hilarious because we were walking up to a gate that said, "please display your armbands." great reading, little fella!

in a tunnel under a hay pyramid. the cool thing is that a ray of sunshine is coming through a hole and snipering jesse in the neck.

our favorite pastime: climbing on high things and then "jumping" to daddy. also known as taking 6 pitter patter marching steps in place and then walking off.

and now for the most spectacular feature in agritourism this side of schrute farms: the corn box. 10 tons of loose corn kernels (and one ibuprofen tablet i found...was that a contest?) for kids of all ages to bask in. no time limit, no line, no extra fee. so freaking fun.

"hey, where have i seen this stuff before? oh, that's right. in my poo"

getting excited about what's going on

self take fampic in the corn. this stuff really felt awesome to roll around in. i was like a seal mama flopping around in my third trimester splendor. watch out, kids, she's turning! (there's a facial shot for your guessing, lori)

stranger offers to take a full body shot of the 4 of us. wish i wasn't having abductor-grip on judah's upper arm and that he was patting my belly instead of jesse's

doy. standard. anything that you might do in sand or snow was being tried in the corn box. burial was favorite though.

walking on unstable surfaces is an alltime favorite activity of judah's. he just walked around wobbling and falling down for like 10 minutes straight.

puttin' out the vibe

action shot of a corn tsunami

judah joined in this little lord of the flies toddler attack on somebody's dad. maybe 2 of these kids are actually his. it was funny to see how they immediately all banded together from all the corners of the box to bury this man.

one of the cornbox hazards.

i laughed at judah hardcore for his buttcorn, but then 2 hours later i went to go #1 and about lost my mind thinking that kidney stones or all of layla's bones were falling out of me into the toilet when about 20 pieces of corn went splink-splinking into the porcelain bowl. and then i was really embarrassed 2 hours after we got back home when i found 5 more kernels while excavating a vicious maternity wedgie. ah, so many places for tiny kernels to go spelunking on my pregnant form. the worst part was when i found judah chewing on some corn that day. who knows who's or which orifice those came from. yikes.

these are the kiddie-sized pedal racers that of course he is still too small for. luckily he didn't mind straddling the chassis. looks comfy

on the big boy ones with daddy, though it was too hard to sit in a lap that was pedaling

once through the tunnel made of a hollowed out and buried school bus (so cool)

and then back to the little ones to let him fred flintstone around as best he could until daddy offered to push him around and around the track.

jesse is taking off the backpack here after 3 sweaty laps so that he can run and push better. but something about the picture of him is just incredibly hot to me. is it because he looks like he's chopping wood? whatever it is, it does the trick! ow, ow!

test-flying the little airplane (aka "high" which is what he calls these as he points to the sky)

checking the flaps and flanges

riding the black mamba swings

not really into the caged hayride

fampic. the belly is way blunt here. weird

judah was untrusting of the sweetest bunny on earth for some reason

but he felt comfortable petting daddy while daddy loved on the rabbit

the little piglet LOVED him. and judah sat there and let him climb all over time for a long time

i think judah had stepped in some poo somewhere and the piglet was getting aggressive on eating it off his shoe and judah started kicking him. aaaaand time's up.

he LOVED the goats, and they were really sweet and pretty. he sat there and let them suck on his fingers (weird for me)

i think he found a couple of tablets of baby ecstasy in the corn box...

to which of course we had to go back to for another round:

jesse thinks he's artsy (we actually just got our lens to our nice camera back from the repair place yesterday, so he can really go wild now. bummer that we didn't have it this day to capture 12MP worth of cornholy glory).

hahahahaha runny nose plus faceplant equals polenta-encrusted baby face

bully!

yeah the 16 month old unattended on this ride worked for 3 revolutions before he tried to stand up and the attendant had to shut it down and come running.

climbing the 85 degree upright ladder like a champ

giving daddy the signals for how to catch him at the bottom

whenever he's a little uneasy on a slide he pulls this move where he immediately flips to the belly. its hilarious.

fried oreos and a fried snickers. not even joking. you might want to adjust your guesses for layla's birthweight in the baby pool based on this. this was dessert after our lunch of corndogs, chips and soda. biggest loser, season 14, here i come! y'all can all laugh during my interview footage when i say, "i dont even know how i let myself get this way."

best picture ever. caught jesse looking disgusted/inlove with the oreo and caught judah dropping some stressful oreos in his diapie.

now the last thing we did was a massive slide down a hill. all i have of this is video and they are sooooooo good. worthy of their own post. so just expect that.

so we now officially have our parenting licenses. step one: conceive and bear children, step 2: take them to pumpkin patches and photograph. check! funnily enough we didnt get pumpkins. i figured i'd get them cheaper at walmart. not as photogenic, but i prefer to save money/live better.

seriously guys, if you live within 2 hours of this place its worth a trip (unless i am dumb and there are pimp pumpkin patches like this all over that i don't know about). we were there for over 3 hours doing nonstop activities and could have done at least twice as much with older aged kids. i mean judah is only 16 months old and there was still tons of age-appropriate stuff for him to have his little mind blown by. i would even go here without a kid. it was one big huge fallgasm of delight and wonder. go now!