Last week, Alistair’s Pre-K class went on a field trip to a local pumpkin patch. Wesley and joined them and had a great time. We went to the pumpkin patch at Clearview United Methodist Church on 38th Avenue in St. Pete. We’ve been there before with friends. Alistair was just 18 months at the time.

I couldn't find a photo where he wasn't upset, so I picked the one where the other kids look their best.

This year was special because the church volunteers do extra stuff for school groups. They have 4 different stations set up for the kids to rotate around.

Station 1: A volunteer teaches the kids that pumpkins are like people. They come in all different shapes, sizes and colors, but they’re all the same on the inside and are equally valuable. If they weren’t speaking to a group of public school students, they would probably say something like this…God made each of us unique but we were all made in His image and He loves us equally.

Station 2: The kids all gathered around a very long table and were each given a paper bag. Inside each bag was a blank paper pumpkin and lots of cut-out shapes for making a pumpkin face. The kids really enjoyed this open ended craft. No two pumpkins were alike.

Station 3: Here the kids learned about how pumpkins grow from a seed to gourd. They also showed the kids where their pumpkins came from (a Native American reservation out West) and how they travel across the country. After that the kids were able to see a tiny pumpkin growing on a vine and some blossoms.

Station 4: This one was especially cute because “Farmer Jimmy” read the kids a story about the Littlest Pumpkin. It was written by one of the volunteers. I think he said that she’s about 90 years old. It’s too bad they don’t have it in book form for people to buy.

I also love that they have several photo-ops set up at one end of the field. The teachers and I took lots of adorable photos of the kids but I don’t have permission to post them online I think I’ll print out all my photos and put them in a little album for the classroom. This should be pretty easy to do with Snapfish. Of course, before driving Alistair back to school, we had to buy a pumpkin for each of the boys. Alistair’s is the one at the top of this post and here’s the one he picked out for baby brother Wesley.

You can tell he really likes it!