White House and Pumpkins

We knew this was going to be a busy weekend. Saturday was booked up with a birthday party for Owen's friend Daryl, and volunteering for the latest Peabody fundraiser, the Capitol Hill Renovator's Home Tour, and Sunday we had plans for our annual trip to the pumpkin patch at Butler's Orchard, and dinner at Mom Mom's house. Then we found out that White House Fall Gardens and Grounds tour was open for Executive Office of the President staff, but it looked like we would be too booked up to make it until Peabody called to move my time volunteering for the fundraiser from Saturday morning to the afternoon. With our morning cleared up, we decided to visit the White House. The kids had fun touring the grounds, although there were a few times they were ready to run off somewhere the Secret Service agents probably didn't want them exploring. Owen particularly liked seeing the White House Kitchen Garden with its bee hive that has produced 170 pounds of honey this year, and Nora was just excited to walk wherever we would let her go.

Sunday morning we drove up to Butler's orchard, where we've picked pumpkins the last few years, with the Brown's and the Stiver's. This year we decided to partake in the Orchard's Fall Festival. The kids had a great time on the giant hillside slides, playing in the hay barn, exploring the corn maze, and taking the hayride to the pumpkin patch. And of course all the boys thought the giant pumpkin cannon was really cool.