Pumpkin Festival - Part I - Activities

Last weekend our family, along with our good friends Adam and Nicole, and their niece & nephew, visited Hunsader Farms in Manatee County for a fun-filled Pumpkin Festival. We arrived early to beat some of the heat and most of the crowds. As a matter of fact, as Jason and I were leaving at 12:45, we passed a VERY long line of people just arriving and decided "We pity the fools!"

Here are a few pics we snagged of our fall filled morning.

Waiting for 'em to lock n load the pumpkin cannon.

Kensie says "This had better be worth the wait!"

Unfortunately we weren't able to capture it on picture or video, but that pumpkin shot farther and faster than expected. Sounds strange, but it was quite entertaining!

Next we went on a hayride. Notice Mackensie is holding her new cell phone. You just can't get that girl to sit and relax. :)

Notice how beautiful the blue sky was! But don't let it fool you. This is fall in FLORIDA, folks. As in 90 degrees. I actually thought about what I could wear that would provide the most comfort and the least amount of tan lines. Who else but us Floridians worry about tan lines at a pumpkin festival?

At the entrance to the corn maize. (Who knew we had those in Florida? Aside from the 90 degree heat, I am feeling quite fall-ish!)

Ask Jason what he thought of his time in the corn maize, and likely his response will be "That's 30 min of my life that I'll never get back". Of course, he was pushing a stroller through dirt in 90 degree heat while wearing a black shirt, and over there somewhere someone was cooking up some mean-smelling BBQ. Our friend, Adam, was not too happy about life in the corn maize, either.

I finally asked the kind folks sitting up high on the lookout (to help any unfortunate lost maizers)... "Are we heading in the right direction? Because if we're not, we might have a mutiny on our hands".

Once we finally made it out of the corn maize successfully, it was off to some good eating... italian sausages, pulled pork sandwiches and all the fixins, french fries, hot dogs, pizza, sweet lemonade, fresh popcorn from the farm.... all eaten in the cool shade that can only be found under hundred-year old oak trees.

Sigh.

Isn't Florida great?!?!

And I can hardly wait to go back, since we didn't have time to pick our own veggies or visit the farmers market.