Ponies and goats and pumpkins, oh my!

This past Sunday, three family trios (me/John/Evelyn, Paula/Bert/Rhea, and Naomi/Ken/Milo) descended upon the Lemos Farm in Half Moon Bay for their amazing "Halloween on the farm" pumpkin patch. We hopped in the Pralinsky/Sawicki minivan and met Ken, Naomi, and Milo on the way.

Lemos Farm was awesome. I had no idea such places existed! They had ponies, goats, ducks, more ponies, a "spooky" train ride, and so much more.


Evelyn was all decked out in her Halloween gear (thanks to Grammy!). She liked looking at the ponies from a distance, thought the goats got too close for comfort, enjoyed watching the kids run around, and generally tested my tolerance for all things not-completely-sanitary by grabbing fistfuls of hay, wood chips, rocks, you name it. It took an ever vigilant eye to keep her from grabbing the goat droppings and offering it to strangers in her usual way.

When she got her fill of the "good bacteria" all around, Evelyn tried to sit on a choice selection of pumpkins. Sitting on things is one of her favorite activities of the past month, and she has a couple of different methods. Sometimes she'll approach the object (pumpkin, floor pillow, fireplace hearth, for example), turn around before she gets there, and then slowly lower herself in the hopes that she lands in the right spot. I think 75% of the time she does. Or, she'll climb over the object so that her butt is hovering over her target and she only needs to swing her leg around to complete the action. Once she's in place, she often likes to bounce, which works well with pillows but not so well with fireplace hearths and pumpkins (ouch!).

I mentioned the goats... Evelyn and Rhea definitely took to them in different ways. I watched as Paula and Rhea attracted the goats with their feed, Rhea squealing with delight. I turned at that moment to see John and Evelyn suddenly surrounded by goats themselves... Evelyn might say swarmed, or inundated, and she had a look on her face that said "Beat it, goats. Seriously."


After an eventful day, including a train ride (see the somewhat uneventful video at the end of this entry that only true Evelyn fans will appreciate) and lots of playing and going down slides, we called it a day. It felt like we'd been there all day, but we were back in the car by noon and heading out as the traffic heading in was backed up and slow going. The girls fell asleep within minutes (and so did I!). All in all a perfect way to celebrate Autumn and Halloween.


Here's a video of Evelyn getting acquainted with the pumpkins:



And here's the "spooky" train ride: