Friends and the Pumpkin Farm

What a fun weekend it's been!!!

Last night our friends Addie and Reece came for a sleepover.  The kids played Wii, then all snuggled up on the living room floor to watch The Princess & the Frog as they were falling asleep.

In the morning, while the boys played some LEGO Wii games,
the girls had fun creating with Bendaroos!

Then their parents came over and we all had lunch together
before heading over to Rader's Pumpkin Farm.

Yep, growing, growing, growing!

The kids climbed all over the fort built from these huge bales!

It was fun jumping on the giant pillow jumper!

The pumpkin patch was beautiful!  They have done a lot to expand the farm and its Fall festivities since we were last there 2 years ago.

Sylvia tried her hand at lassoing a bull!
I think it was harder than she expected, but she gave it a good go!

Caeden really got into the huge dirt pile!

He got a *little* dusty. ;)

Face-in-the-hole fun!!!

There was a man there playing beautifully on a hammer dulcimer.  We stopped and listened for quite a while.  He told us he made it himself, and explained how it is strung... It is backwards from the piano, so low to high goes right to left.



He showed the kids his Abe Lincoln lumberjack, which they all liked!



He also taught several kids how to play the spoons
and let them play along with him as he played the hammer dulcimer.



He had this beautiful instrument sitting next to him, and we were curious about it.  I asked him to tell us about it, and he did.  It is a Swedish key fiddle called a Nyckelharpa.  He also made it himself.  It has 4 strings you play with a short bow, and keys!  Very interesting!

It was nearly 90 degrees today, but we had so much fun spending the day with our friends at the pumpkin farm!  Afterwards, we stopped by Ropp Cheese Farm for some ice cream and cheeses.  It was a lovely day!