I made sure to volunteer for Madeline's field trip to the pumpkin patch because it is such a fun place to play. This was the third time both Madeline and I have been to this particular pumpkin patch. I was in a group with 4 little girls plus another mom. We basically had free play for a few hours and jumped from one activity to the next. We let each of the girls get to choose which activity they wanted to do next. The favorite of the group was definitely the roller slides. Madeline would have stayed there all day if it had been up to her. Madeline also loved feeding the animals, jumping on the big bounce pillows, riding the cow train, and running through the hay maze. At the end of the field trip each of the kids got to pick out a pumpkin to take home. Madeline choose a tiny white pumpkin that fit in the palm of her hand. It was the cutest thing ever!

Madeline's first kindergarten field trip was to the Colorado Kids Ranch Pumpkin Patch. Luckily, it was the same pumpkin patch that she went to last year when she was in preschool. After everyone arrived, we split the class into smaller groups. I was in charge of Madeline and two little boys, Nolan and Joshua. Our group wanted to play on the slides first like most of the other kids in the class. They had a blast going up and down the fast slides. Some of the kids used the burlap sacks to sit on but Madeline didn't want to use those this time and just went down like a regular slide. We spent a good 20 minutes at the slides. Then we ventured over to the animals so they could pet the donkeys, llamas, sheep, goats, ponies, and horses. Madeline just loved petting the animals. The boys in our group wanted to milk the pretend cows and so we did that before heading over to the orange jumping pillows. The kids loved jumping and playing over in that section of the pumpkin patch. After their fill of jumping, we hopped on over to the laser tag arena. With mounds of tires stacked everywhere and a raised fort, the kids had fun running around with their laser guns. Then it was off to the large tube swings, musical playhouses, and finally to the cow train. Madeline's cow was named Cowlick and she just loved this ride. They went around the field twice and in various parts of the course there were little hilly sections. The kids quickly ran from that ride over to the corn box. Madeline didn't stay long in that since the corn kept getting stuck in her shoes. We eventually met the rest of her class to eat lunch. Then it was back to the slides before playing the large Jenna, Tic-Tac-Toe and Connect Four games. We went and fed the ponies on our way to go and pick out pumpkins. The kids each got to pick out their own medium sized pumpkin to take home. We took a class photo and then the kids got back on the bus and headed back to school. It was a successful first elementary school field trip for Madeline!

Madeline’s first field trip in Pre-School was to the Colorado Pumpkin Patch only 15 minutes from our house. We met her class at 10am, stood in line to get our tickets and then headed first to the bounce pillows for some bouncing fun. The bounce pillows were basically like jumping in a bounce house without walls or a ceiling. Madeline had so much fun bouncing and flipping. Oh boy did she master the flip. She spent several minutes flipping all the way across the length of the bounce pillow and then kept telling the kids, “Watch me. Look what I can do.” After Madeline was done bouncing, we headed over to feed the farm animals. We spent a few dollars feeding the llamas, sheep, and ponies. Madeline loved it. Then we spent some time at the big slides. We grabbed our sack mats and headed up to the top. We went down a few times together, went back to the bounce pillows for a little bit and then went back to the slides. Madeline was so excited to see her friend Jack that she immediately picked up her sack and headed up to the slide alone with Jack. I was so excited to see her be so brave and go by herself down the slide. The first time I could tell she was shocked by how fast she went. But then it was back up to the slide she went. She literally ran back to the line after every slide. We spent a good deal of time there and she probably went down at least 10-15 times all by herself. By this point, it was time to eat lunch, so we headed over to the stacked hay tower and ate lunch with her classmates and then took a group photo. On our way out of the pumpkin patch, Madeline got to pick out her little pumpkin and then we headed home. It was a great first field trip for Madeline.