Belinda's Pumpkins

Today we got to take Hailey's first field trip with preschool! We visited Belinda's Pumpkin Farm waaayyy out in the middle of nowhere. The kids had a blast.

Keelyn couldn't believe all the pumpkins out in front...

Both girls were immediately picking out their favorites...

The theme of the day for Keeks was to pick up the biggest ones she could find and carry them around...

Hailey was a little worried about the tractor-pulled hay ride back to the pumpkin patch, but Ms. Kristine tickled her silly, and all was well. In fact, on the way home, she said riding on the hay was her favorite part of the morning, so I'm glad she gave it a try.

Keelyn liked it too. Doesn't she look so happy in this picture? I think in her mind she's saying, "This is the best hay ride ever...," don't you?

Hailey followed Ms. Kristine around picking out the biggest and the best in the patch.

While Keelyn also picked out the biggest...

Doesn't this look like fun?

Then, they painted their pumpkins...

And drank hot chocolate with friends...This is one of Hailey's "girls" in school...Megan.

I am continually amazed at how Hailey is overcoming things through her experiences at preschool. Her poor little lips quivered the second she saw that big tractor this morning, and she spent the better part of our innitial time there crying in my lap. You see, tractors make noise, and noise is hard for her. The anticipation of what might happen (in other words, the worst possible scenary her mind can possibly conjure up, like explosions, and fireworks, and spontaneous combustion, and the witch from Sleeping Beauty appearing out of the fire spitting out of the back of the tractor) is just too much. But once she realized her friends were doing it, and once she realized we were going to help her, she mustered up some courage, and she was so proud of herself.

Sometimes it's hard to know how much to push with something like that. We gave her an option for something different, and encouraged her to try anyway, and she did. It's so wonderful to hear her now say that was the most fun part of her day, because I know that's partly because she's so proud of herself, as she should be. What a strong little kid. Seeing her enjoy that tractor ride was certainly the best part of my day as well.