Team Sullivan: Our Fall-time tradition

It’s become our family tradition to take the kids to the local orchard/pumpkin patch each fall. Although we live in Iowa, this is about the only chance we get to be on the farm scene, so it’s a different sort of fun that the kids really look forward too. We were trying to hold out on our annual trip until Jennifer and Florence come home, but it has started to get really cold here so we figured we better fit our trip in now. (And for those wondering, I hope to be able to give you a majorly exciting adoption update late next week, so keep watch for that!) Some pictures from our Orchard fun…

Feeding the goats….

Corn pool wrestling – a definite favorite!

The jumping pillow!

This tractor racing track was a new addition to the Orchard this year and quickly became JJ’s favorite. :)

The giant slide is a family fav….doesn’t it look chilly out there? It was!!!

Justice has always loved the apple sling…

He really gets into it!

After all the fun and games our last stop is always the pumpkin patch! We take a hay ride out to the field…

And then it’s down to business as we follow Daddy’s advice and look for the pumpkin that is ‘calling our name’!

Sometimes pumpkin hunting is hard work!

Justice found his!

Last year we held our first ever Sullivan Family Pumpkin Carving Contest, and this year the competitive juices and smack talk were already flying around during our time at the Orchard. We just couldn’t wait to get home and start carving!!!

This year it hit us that we didn’t have to be limited to the carving patterns that they sell at Walmart. We wanted to be a little more creative with ideas so Google came in handy for that! Although JJ and Jayla can’t quite do the actual carving part yet, they definitely were very particular about which design they picked. It took JJ over 45 minutes to finally decide his! Mommy and Daddy brought JJ and Jayla's creations to life, and Justice was able to do his all by himself. Then we uploaded our final products to Facebook for friends and family to decide the winner by votes (Justice and JJ were checking their vote tallies on Jake’s phone every 5 minutes and calling the grandmas to recruit votes)!! Here’s how they came out:

Jayla's 'Minnie Mouse'...