Ode to Fall on an 80 degree day

Warm weather has hit the Bay Area like it does every October. Yet, as we enter Fall we crave the inevitable Fall weather not expected until Wednesday. This weekend we overlooked the incredible poolside weather and instead sought out some rites of Fall.

Yesterday we took the boys to the pumpkin patch Rodini Farms, north of Santa Cruz near the town of Davenport, Calif. After years of going to popular "get there early" pumpkin patches with trains and pony rides, or braving the traffic over near Half Moon Bay, it was nice to go to a low key but large pumpkin patch.

The boys had a lot of fun -- playing on bails of hay and climbing through tubes. All very low tech, low stress and the right note for this year's pumpkin patch visit.

Today, we continued our Fall traditions with a pumpkin pancake breakfast at Buck's of Woodside, Calif. Buck's is very kitsch -- in the very best sense of the word. The restaurant -- with its alligator farm carpeting, and collections of odd finds, including Mona Lisa in a cowboy hat and the Statue of Liberty holding an ice cream -- is a blast. Each Buck's visit isn't complete without a treasure hunt through the restaurant. And by the way, the pumpkin pancakes are great!

Now having checked off two Fall traditions, maybe we'll go to the pool this afternoon, before the weather breaks and we can finally don our Fall wardrobe.

The Holiday Frenzy Seems Early this Year

Somehow the usual Happy Fall skip hit a frenetic Holiday grind which I don't see slowing down until February.  We didn't make it to a pumpkin patch this year, instead relying on Safeway pumpkins and two pumpkins that came home from Kindergarten. We did do our annual pumpkin pancake breakfast in Woodside, but opted not to venture further into Half Moon Bay (where we would have hit the pumpkin patch circuit) because it was the weekend of the Half Moon Bay Pumpkin festival. We went last year, and it just isn't worth the headache of the crowds.

By the time Halloween rolled around last Sunday we couldn't believe it had crept up so quickly. We carved the pumpkins and bought candy Halloween day. The boys still had oodles of fun.

We did make other choices that consumed our time...Xander plays soccer every Saturday through Thanksgiving week. Caleb is still in pre-hockey at Sharks Ice - so Saturday before 12 pm is booked. ...Jonathan and I got to go to the World Series and cheer on our San Francisco Giants, we spent a Sunday evening in San Francisco to celebrate our anniversary, and we went to the Gorillaz concert in Oakland... We also planned our East Coast Thanksgiving trip to DC and New York -- which will include the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade.

It turns out that the school age years are harder than I thought it would be. The weekly Kindergarten homework eats up time. It is good time, one-on-one with Xander, but it still takes away from other fun activities. Xander is starting to read, color in the lines, write and do basic math. Then there is the obligatory school activities, like back to school night, PTA meetings and the Harvest Festival, which we really should and do work into our already overbooked schedule.

Then there were things beyond our control like both boys getting sick (three weeks apart) and late nights with a feverish boy, but thus is life. 

So now, I'm looking at the next two weeks before our trip to the East Coast and wondering how we're going to get it all done, but still keep it fun.  We have our three-month eye appointment for Xander,  his parent-teacher conference, and school is closed this Thursday and Friday (Thursday our preschool daycare has agreed to take Xander, and Friday he will be in school aftercare - they are going to the Children's Discovery Museum).  Jonathan and I also both have big projects for work due ... so we'll have to balance, balance, balance. And I haven't started Holiday shopping yet. Yikes!

Pumpkin Patches - Uesugi Farms

Halloween is still several weeks away, but with small children it makes sense to beat the crowds and do your pumpkin patch visits early.

Last weekend we took the boys to Uesugi Farms in Morgan Hill. It is a large pumpkin patch surrounded by corn fields.

Last year we took them in late October, and it was crowded. This year's visit was much more fun. We didn't have to wait in long lines, or endure the crowds, and it was much easier to spot our boys if one managed to wander away.

The pumpkin patch offers all of the obligatory Fall events. It has train rides through the pumpkins, hayrides through the corn, and if you children are especially persuasive, pony rides.

Cost wise it wasn't too bad, about the cost of going to a movie theater for a family of four. Parking was $3, the train and hayrides were $4 a person, and the pony ride was $5 a person.  Walking through the pumpkin patch was free, as well as the live music. Pumpkins were also fairly priced.

We had been to the pumpkin patch before, so we bought tickets for the train, and the hayride. We took the boys on the train first (a red miniature train that looks identical to the one at Wheaton Regional Park). We then took the hayride, which was bumpy and fun.

After that we explored the pumpkin patch, took pictures of the boys below the pyramid of pumpkins and picked out our pumpkins. We were ready to go when the boys spotted the pony ride. I broke down, and bought them tickets...

They loved the whole experience, and we were able to do everything in about two hours. Over the next couple of weeks I have some other Halloween activities planned ... Boo at the Zoo, Pumpkins in the Park, the Haunted Train Ride. This is really my favorite time of year.