{The Ordinary Moments 16} #39 'A Little Tradition of Visiting the Pumpkin Patch'

Autumn is by far my favourite time of year. I love the changing colours of the leaves, anything to do with Halloween, being able to wear chunky scarves and wooly jumpers and lighting all my Autumn scented candles in the evenings. I am one of these who is a little obsessive about Halloween in fact- I think it's probably something to do with my Canadian upbringing as it's such a huge thing over there. I love that LO is really getting interested in the different seasons and festivals throughout the year now too. He seems really interested in Autumn and the nicer side of Halloween and so this year we couldn't wait to take him on our yearly trip to the pumpkin patch.

Living where we do in West Yorkshire, we are very lucky that within a stone's throw of our city, we can get to so many nice places to visit. Bar the coast, which we couldn't get any further from if we tried, we are really spoilt by a huge choice of touristy destinations, days out and generally nice places to visit as a family. We don't go on big days out every weekend, in fact we often enjoy more ordinary moments at home just pottering about as it's so often what we all need after a busy week, but every now and then we love to do something nice and take the boys out for the day somewhere in the local area as there really are so many lovely places to visit. One place which seems to have inadvertently become a bit of a yearly tradition is to go pumpkin picking at Farmer Copleys in Pontefract, West Yorkshire. I wrote about our trip there last year and I couldn't wait to take the boys this year.

Last year of course I was pregnant with Little L, and it felt a little surreal going again this year as he just seemed so big and grown up, sitting on pumpkins and crawling about, considering only a year ago he wasn't even born. And that's one of the things I love about blogging and documenting our adventures. I love that I can look back and see what we got up to a year or two or three years ago, and reminisce about these sorts of things. 

 I was looking back at photos from last year's trip and I cannot believe how much LO has changed in a year, not to mention how big Little L is.

 It was a really cold, crisp day, perfect for a morning of pumpkin picking. We chose a really weird looking one- one that you could never buy in a shop.

 Last year Little L was a pumpkin in my tummy. Last year I was paranoid that they thought I might have stolen one and smuggled it up my top. And now one year on, at 9 months old.

 Such a cheeky chappy. He's constantly smiling and giggling.

 On a side note I have been totally rubbish with any sort of monthly updates for Little L. But from this photo you can probably tell that he loves standing and will pull himself up on anything. He has also been crawling for a while and I keep longing for time to slow down as he seems so grown up.

 LO is obsessed with tractors and loved that he got to have a free ride on these. 

 If you look back at my post from last year you'll notice he's still wearing the exact same green bobble hat and orange wellies. We bought them for him the same day we went pumpkin picking last year. I think he probably needs some new wellies by now...

 My littlest lad amongst a field of pumpkins. He was fascinated by the pumpkins and quite happy to just sit and play with them.

 It really is a fantastic place to visit if you're ever in the area in October. You can probably make a whole day out of it as there's so much to do. They now have stalls with face painting, pumpkin buckaroo, lots of food stalls selling tasty treats like toffee apples and pumpkin skittles.

I love that we are starting our own little family traditions and this is one which I'm sure we will continue even when we move to Lincolnshire and I'm sure I'll make sure I document next year's too as I just love to look back on what we got up to- whether it's an ordinary moment at home or an exciting day out together to the pumpkin patch.