We are no strangers to Tanaka Farms in Irvine. We’ve been for there for strawberry season, watermelon season and now we can add the fall pumpkin patch to our list.

I took the day off work to go with Henry and his preschool class. (Some boys-only time, you know.) We arrived a bit early and spent a good half hour throwing dirt clods at the sunflowers lining the waiting area. That right there was entirely worth the trip. I think both of us could have skipped the whole pumpkin thing and just kept right on slinging dirt.

At any rate, though, we joined the rest of the class and took a tractor ride around the farm. Henry was fairly nonplussed about the tractor since he’s an old hand at driving both tractors and backhoes. The rest of the class, though, seemed to be having a ball.

After a brief stop-over at the petting zoo we made our way to the main event: picking out a pumpkin. The kids could pick any one they wanted with one catch: they had to be able to carry it out to the car. Henry, being the sensible one, went and picked the smallest one he could find – literally no more than a few inches in diameter. Not so good for carving so I forced him to grab one a little larger.

We ended the excursion with a visit to Wendy’s for a Frosty. Henry loved it then spent most of the ride home napping with a smile on his little chocolate-covered face.