2 superheroes & a princess: while daddy rides, we play

This day has sort of become a tradition for us. For the past three years we have been going with Ryan to Lawrence and while he goes off on an 80 mile bike ride we spend the day playing at a pumpkin patch. The first year I kind of dreaded the day...I mean I had to some how entertain three small kids in a town I didn't know for 5-6 hours. I went that first year and have gone each year since, mainly because Ryan is always so supportive with everything I do and has come to every race I have ever done, how can I not be there for this once a year thing. I found that the kids and I enjoy this day and I have started to look forward to it!

Now this is not a "race" Ryan does since they stop and eat several MEALS during the ride...I'm telling you after this half marathon this is totally going to be my new "sport"...as in I will get a tandem bike and just let Ryan do all the work with pedaling ;). Since it's not a race there really isn't any spectators watching the cyclist go off...that is except for us! I think we should get extra bonus points for being the most supportive family :).

{Waiting for the start}

{This is the best picture I got of Ryan heading off...he's toward the back in the white shirt}

So what do we do to fill the time?

Well if you ask Evan what we do when Daddy does a bike ride, he would tell you we go and get candy. Yes, it is true I do stop at the gas station and let them get candy and a drink...this is such a BIG deal because it only happens on the two bike rides Ryan does a year.

Then we head to our favorite pumpkin patch, Schaake's Pumpkin Patch. {If you are keeping track, this is our 3rd pumpkin patch we have been to this season!} This place can get CRAZY busy on the weekends, but the trick is to show up right when they open and then you got a good hour before the car loads of people arrive. What makes it our favorite? It's all FREE {except your pumpkins, of course}, there's a nice small hay bale maze for kids, and I love the variety of pumpkins they grow here.

{They named their pumpkins. From left to right we have Peach (his long name is Peach Wave), Yellow, and Hulk Smash.}

I love having the progression of these pictures every year. Here they are the past three years:

Avery:

Evan:

Ellie:

{She was NOT at the stage of stand still and take a picture here.}

Oh man, how did that happen...where has the time gone!?

And because I didn't have a blog before here's a couple of cute pictures from past years...

2011

2012

And back to this year.

After we were done there we still had three hours left to kill. Nothing was open, yet since it was a Sunday so we went to the park/school playground we found three years ago to play at.

It's finally lunch time so we had downtown to a pizza place we had been recommended to try {the previous two years we just ate at McDonald's...always a favorite, but decided to expand our horizon this year ;)}. It was yummy and the kids gobbled it all down!

After lunch we headed to another place that had a pumpkin patch...that's right ANOTHER pumpkin patch :). They also had a Monarch house and fun things to play on. We didn't go out to their pumpkin patch since we are getting quite a collection of pumpkins, but we did have fun doing there other things. I think this place will have to go into the yearly rotation!!