Hersheypark In The Dark 2010

Since we have season passes, we decided to try Hersheypark In The Dark. We were going to try it Friday night, but it was really cold and windy, so we ended up going last night. It was crowded, but the weather was so nice that we didn't even need jackets! Aiden enjoyed dressing up as "Slinky Dog" (we had this costume for awhile, but now that he has a new infatuation with Toy Story-this was the best connection we could make). There were three trick-or-treat stops in Chocolate World and nine more in "Treatville" which was set up inside the park. Aiden has never seen Hersheypark with all the lights on and he loved it! He was also really excited, because he was finally tall enough to ride the swings.

Riding the helicopters (He is having fun, I swear!)

The swings

Oregon Dairy

The Oregon Dairy in Lititz was having Kids Pumpkin' Picking Day yesterday, and luckily my mom heard about it on the radio. The "pumpkin patch" was actually a bunch of pre-purchased pumpkins that they had all spread out over a field, but Aiden didn't care. He was way more interested in walking through the corn field and picking the corn. There was a wagon ride to take you to the pumpkin patch, the Pumpkin Chuck'r and the barn. The Pumpkin Chuck'r was this large contraption that shot pumpkins up to 400 yards and it was actually pretty cool. The barn had some craft tables set up and the kids could decorate their pumpkins for free! They had these things called Pedal Tractors and a route cut out through the corn. I thought they looked pretty fun and there were some that had two seats. Brian and I decided to split the path in half and I drove the first half and he did the second half. Let's just say they were definitely for smaller people to drive, because the pedals and seat were really close together. I also lucked out and had to go slightly up-hill the whole way. Brian, on the other hand, got to travel down-hill for his half and was cool because he was going "fast".

Play tables filled with corn

Pedal Tractors

Merry Maids

Aiden wanted to take part in house cleaning last weekend. He enjoyed helping Daddy vacuum the most!

Snow Boots

We found these boots while cleaning out the garage this weekend. We were happy to find out that they fit and we can use them this winter. Aiden thought he was Woody from Toy Story and didn't want to take them off.

Sycamore Springs Orchard

We all went to Sycamore Springs Orchard this past weekend for the Harvest Festival. It was beautiful weather and we enjoyed a hayride around the orchard, pumpkin picking from the patch and pony rides. We went for one pumpkin, but ended up with about six. The patch was pretty picked out from the previous day, but we just wanted Aiden to have the experience of getting them from the vine and not from the roadside stand. Once we were done pumpkin picking, we went to the barn for pony rides. After an unsure start, he ended up really enjoying the horse riding. First he rode on Jack, and then took one lap on Wizard and one lap on Belle (with mommy, since it was a full size horse and not a pony). After we left the orchard, we headed to Michael's and got some paint pens, pipe cleaners, pom-poms and "googly eyes" to decorate the pumpkins.

Hayride

Pumpkin picking

Aiden's first funnel cake

Jack

Wizard

Belle

Decorated pumpkins

Philadelphia Zoo

On September 18th we headed to the Philadelphia Zoo for the day. My parents had been wanting to take Aiden for quite some time and that looked like it was going to be a cooler weekend. We did have beautiful weather, and for the most part Aiden really enjoyed the zoo. His favorite part was the kid zone with ducks, cows, goats, and bunnies. You know, all those animals you can find right around your house and view for free! I'd say the next best part was the giraffes. Other than that, most of the animals were either sleeping or hidden somewhere in their cages and we couldn't even see them. Also, no zoo seems right if they don't have elephants so we might try the Washington Zoo next and see what that's like. I said we should skip that and just go straight to the San Diego Zoo, but I guess that's not really a day trip!