Last weekend, Luke and I headed to our first pumpkin patch of the year. We decided to head on down to Mt. Ulla and visit one of our favorite places - Patterson Farm. As usual, we were not disappointed - the weather was PERFECT, it was NOT crowded, and there were a ton of activities for Luke to do - it was another awesome road trip.
Patterson Farm has the regular pumpkin patch activities such as the hayride, the cow train, and the corn pile, but, it also has a huge playground area with some very neat and original activities. Luke attempted all of them - he climbed the big tire tower, he went down the huge tube slide (he loved this - it was super fast!), he climbed up the wooden playground and slid down the big yellow tunnel slide, he played in the tiny barn that is set up like a tiny classroom, he did the rope maze, he went through the tire obstacle course, he rode the horse swings, and he played on the ship wooden playground that had a slide and some monkey rings to hang on.
Luke's favorite activity of all was the corn pile. There were no shovels or buckets or tractors but that didn't stop Luke - he jumped in the corn, threw the corn, rolled in the corn, buried me and him in the corn - he had a blast! He stayed got in and out of the corn in between almost every activity - I bet we were in the corn for an hour. We came home with corn in all kinds of places. :)
After playing in the playground area for quite awhile, Luke and I went on the hayride - it's a neat hayride - they take you all over the farm, which is beautiful, and then to the pumpkin patch. A highlight for me came on the hayride - Luke was snuggled up beside of me and I said, "I love you bunches, buddy." He looked at me so sweet and said, "I love you bunches too, Mommy." I enjoyed the peaceful ride with my favorite boy beside of me. When we arrived at the pumpkin patch, Luke looked at the pumpkins but he wanted to find a small one and they didn't have any small ones so we decided to wait and find him a small one somewhere else. Their pumpkins were beautiful, but huge! :)
I almost forgot - before we headed to the playground area, we stopped by the barn to feed the goats. You may remember from our visit to Patterson Farm a few years ago, the baby goat named Fudge. On our first visit to Patterson Farm two summers ago, Luke and I had the chance to pet and hold Fudge when he was a tiny baby goat - he was precious and Luke loved him! Well, this time, when we were feeding the goats, we asked where Fudge was and if we could pet him. Sadly, Fudge was in a pen all by himself because he was recovering from injuries that he received after being kicked by a donkey in the fields. We went to Fudge's pen to see him and, sure enough, he was limping and had some nerve damage on one side of his face and on one ear. The workers said that he would probably fully recover eventually. We were able to feed Fudge and pet his head but he had to stay inside his pen because of his injuries. Luke loved feeding Fudge and the other goats. These goats were so gentle that Luke felt comfortable putting his whole hand up to them and feeding them. I have a video of Luke feeding them below.
After playing on the playground, Luke and I finished our Patterson Farm adventures by riding the cow train - it was extra bumpy and Luke laughed out loud the entire ride. We stopped by the bouncy horses - Luke tried to bounce on them but it was difficult so he had more fun climbing on them and then pretending to fall off. And, finally, we stopped by the store and got Luke a tiny tractor and trailer, a puppy beany baby, and a delicious red apple for the ride home. It was an awesome day! Here are some pictures...
This was the tiny barn that set up like a classroom....
The evenings are so pretty lately that we spend almost our entire night outside....here are a few pictures from one night last week. I caught my boys playing basketball on camera....
This weekend has already been a great one - despite the nasty rain. :)
On Friday night, Luke and I went to the Thomasville Pentecostal Holiness church to watch Landis, his dad, his uncle Howard, and his uncle Pete play some gospel music for the church's camp meeting revival. The Bumgarner boys did a fabulous job with their singing and the message that was taught by a visiting pastor's wife was awesome! As I sat in the church, listening to Landis sing, watching Luke play with his trains beside of me, I was overwhelmed with thankfulness - I thanked the Lord for where He has brought us as a family and a husband/wife team. Years ago, on a Friday night, the last place Landis and I would have wanted to go or would have ended up going would have been church! Yes, that's the honest truth, but, now, thanks to the mercy and grace of God, I looked forward to the Friday night church service all week and enjoyed my time there on Friday night. I received an extra dose of the Word and the Spirit before my weekend began. It was awesome!
Luke behaved like a true gentleman for the entire church service. He is well trained because he sits with us at our regular church so he knew the rules. He played with his trains, he drew, and he looked at some books. He even tried to sing a song that he recognized. He was so sweet and I appreciate the Lord for helping me with the diligence I have needed to train this 2 year old to sit quietly in church! :)
Yesterday, Luke and I had planned on going to Everybody's Day, but, as you know, it was a down pour all day. Luke and I played a lot inside the house on Saturday morning as we watched the weather to see what would happen, but, around 11:00, when it looked like there was no sunshine to be found - we headed to one of Luke's favorite places - Chuck E Cheese!
I guess because the weather was yucky, everyone had the same idea because it was PACKED! And....I am not a fan of big crowds and Luke's isn't either. We ended up having a great time and stayed there for almost 2 hours but it started off a little bumpy....let me tell you a sweet story....
One of Luke's favorite parts of going to Chuck E Cheese is climbing the big steps, going through the tunnels, and then going down the slide. The last couple of times that we have visited Chuck E Cheese, Lexi has been with us so she helps him through the tunnels. Well, yesterday, Lexi wasn't there and Luke said that he still wanted to climb so I told him that was fine and I reminded him to watch out for big kids and to be careful. Luke started the climb up the steps and I could see everything that he was doing. He made it all the way to the top but then he wouldn't go inside the tunnels. He just froze. He stood in the corner and watched about 20 kids climb the steps and then pass him. He would get ready to go in the tunnel and then as soon as another child came along, he would back up (and, like I said, this place was crowded) so a lot of children came along. I tried to get him to come down or go through the tunnel and he wouldn't. As he stood there, a little girl (probably about 3 years old) accidentally kicked him as he climbed. I watched Luke's reaction - he wasn't hurt so I just watched....he forcefully moved her legs out of her face and then stood there for another few minutes. Finally, I told him - either come down or go through the tunnel before you do get hurt. He looked at me (my usually fearful, on the go, climber) - looked at me with the saddest face and began crying - tears, big tears! I told him to come down and he did - when he reached me at the bottom, he laid his head on my shoulders and cried. I said, "Sweetheart, what's wrong? Why didn't you go in the tunnel?" He said, "Because those big kids are in there and that girl kicked me in the face." This broke my heart but I knew this was a great chance to teach him some scripture!
Luke and I sat down and I looked him right in the eyes and quoted this scripture - "For God has not given us a spirit of fear - but of power, love, and a sound mind." That is one of my favorite scriptures - 2 Timothy 1:7. The scripture is talking about not being scared of telling others about Jesus but, to me, it means a whole lot more. In a world full of people - both good and bad, we have to learn to be brave and make our own way. I explained to Luke that Jesus gave him a spirit to be brave, not scared. I told him to not be scared, but to climb those steps, use his manners and politely go by the big kids - I told him that Jesus didn't want him to back into a corner and to be fearful. Luke's little tears cleared up, we hugged again, and then Luke rode a few rides for about 10 minutes. Then, all of a sudden, he looked at me and said, "I'm ready to climb again." I said, "Are you going to be brave?" He said, "Yes." Sure enough-he climbed up the steps, went straight into the tunnel, and slid down all by himself. He was so excited when he reached the bottom and realized he had overcome his fear! It was awesome - I was proud of him. He ended up climbing and sliding one more time and then he moved on to more rides. There will be many times in his life in which he will need the scripture I taught him yesterday - my prayer is that, like the small boy David who fought Goliath, Luke will always be confident in the fact that if you have Jesus, it doesn't matter how big you are-you can accomplish anything you put your mind to! :) Thank you, Lord, for the small lessons in life! :)
Luke really did have a great time playing at Chuck E Cheese - his new favorite part was throwing the skee balls. He never earned many points but he thought it was great that he could roll the balls up the hill and get them to disappear. Another cute part of our visit this time was that Luke wanted to carry his own tokens in his pocket - he kept his tokens in his tiny pocket and when he wanted to ride something, he climbed on, reached in for a coin, and then put it in the slot all by himself. It was so sweet watching him act all grown up.
After several hours of playing, we headed to the mall for some quick shopping. We rented Luke a red shopping cart to drive. He drove it well - never once complaining or trying to get out. While I shopped in Old Navy, Luke used some old plastic hangers that he found to "work on" his car - that's also what he did while I tried on clothes in the dressing room. He was very well behaved and I was excited to get some shopping done! After we finished shopping, I let Luke play on the indoor playground for a little while. He ran and climbed and chased a little baby girl around and had a blast as usual! Around 5:30, we finally headed home! We were both starving so we went through a drive thru and ate on the way home.
Then, at home, we ended our night with some chases around the house - I carried baby lion while Luke carried baby cow and the lion chased the cow until she caught him and tickled both Luke and cow! Luke laughed and laughed! Right before bedtime, Luke crawled up on the couch with me and wanted to snuggle. He said, "Mommy, I love snuggling with you. I love you, my little mommy." He kept calling me, "Sweet little mommy." It was precious! Because Luke didn't have a nap, he headed to bed fairly early and went to sleep easily. I had some extra time to get some things done around the house - it was a nice day! Very, nice day! Here are some pictures...
This is a picture of a little craft that Luke and I made yesterday morning. We painted a paper towel tube, glued a little flame on it and made a light. We sang, "This little light of mine" and read a Bible verse from John where Jesus says, "I am the light of the world." Luke loved doing the painting but he had it all over him so we took a bath before I took the picture of him with his craft and as a result, you get this picture of Luke....(we tried to cover everything up :) ) .....
Some driving at Chuck E Cheese....
Videos:
#1 - Luke playing the corn pile.
#2- Luke feeding the goats.
#3 - Luke going down the tube slide!
Have an awesome Sunday everyone! May God bless you today!
Toddy
Real quick: let me share - recently, I have posted some blogs about my fears and worries for our country. Before last Sunday, I had almost gotten to the point that my fear and worry was suffocating me. Well, thanks to the healing and restoring power of Jesus, I feel renewed. I prayed about my fears for days and then at church last Sunday, Pete just happened to have a whole sermon based on fear (using the verse that I shared earlier - 2 Timothy 1:7 and many other verses). We always have the opportunity for Pete to lay his hands on us when we need something because Pete uses the power of the Holy Spirit to meet needs through the laying of hands and prayer. Well, I'm not usually one who goes to the front and requests prayer but the Lord was dealing with me tremendously last week and He wanted me to reach out and accept His restoration so I did. I reached out to Jesus by letting Pete put his hands on me and pray for me. Y'all I cannot describe in words what happened to me - it was amazing! Every ounce of fear and doubt that I had about my future, Luke's future, our country's future disappeared - I left that service feeling energized and like a ton of bricks had been lifted off of my shoulders. Now, I'm not saying that things are not still going to get really rough in our country - they are - the Lord has warned us (through Pete's messages) about some upcoming "storms" in America's future but what I now know with confidence is this - I have the power of Jesus within me - He is my shepherd - my protector, my comforter, my peace giver - no matter what happens in the world around me, I have a hope and a future that is eternal and that's enough to help me have JOY IN TODAY without fear of tomorrow. Thank you for the power of the Holy Spirit and for Jesus resurrection! Love you all! :)
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