Year 2, Day 287: Tuttle's Orchard Part 2

Tuttle's Orchard, After Lunch
(see part 1 here: Tuttle's Orchard Part 1)

After our tour, we went back to the van to eat lunch.  I had intended to go sit at some picnic tables nearby, but it was a little warmer and less windy in the car.  And who doesn't like a picnic in the car?  I had a packed just enough for us to not get hungry on the ride home, but fully intended on getting home in time to eat more if need be.  Well, we stayed a lot longer than I thought we were going to because it was such a great day and Tractor Town proved a huge highlight for the kiddos!  Here's all the pictures from the things we did on our own.  I think I took a ton more pictures though after lunch because we had more time in the same spot and I was bored.  I tend to post more on social media when I'm bored as well, as I try to capture the mundane when I have the chance.

Abishai will totally pose for the camera if he sees it in the ready position.  Look, Mom, here's the apple I picked from the orchard!  Oh those baby blues!

Totally adorable!

Awww, posing together!

The other two goofballs.

The kids weren't impressed with the corn in the cornmaze, but did enjoy walking through it and finding the "corny characters." (You'll see what I mean in a minute.)

Here is Abishai leading us down the path.

Four little (big) ducks, all in a row.  They each had a turn to lead, although there was fighting about it at times.

Our first "corny character!" Can you guess what it is?  A COBweb!

I wasn't sure if we needed a map or not, but I made sure we had one just in case.  Justin insisted we use it.  We actually didn't need it, but it did give us clues as to what the corny characters were called.  We did miss a few though.

Feed corn!  For those who don't live in the midwest or on a farm somewhere, most of the corn you see in Indiana fields are for livestock feed or corn products like corn syrup.  The sweet corn we eat is typically shorter (at least in my limited experience) and has a shorter growing season.  Also, you pick it before the stalks turn brown.  Again, I could be all wrong, but this is what I've observed here.

The advantages of having a Daddy clone on the trip.  These two are totally cute together!

An EARplug!

A (tea) kettle CORN!

Wolly mammoth caterpillars!  There were several along the route and they were all going in the same direction - west!  Hm,...don't know why, but maybe they can since a warmer spot where the sun is still hitting the dirt?  I don't know.

I let him observe the caterpillar crawl across the whole path because I, and the other kids, have to remember that this is his first experiences with everything.  Plus, I'm just more attune to allowing these things to be part of the experience and not rush.

That's right, candy CORN!

And popCORN.

The tour guide mentioned the "3 sisters" aka corn, beans, and maybe this flower?  She said that it's what the native Americans used to plant in the same spot because they all need different nutrients and leave or give off other nutrients the the other plants need.  Anyway, we found these pansy vines wrapped around the cornstalks in numerous places.

We didn't pick anymore apples, but because Benaiah hadn't gone with us to the other orchard, I made sure to grab a pick this time with all 4.  This is one of the dwarf trees.  See how much more fruit is on it despite it being smaller?  I guess it's why we prune most of our plants at home in our flower beds, so that the nutrients go back to the other parts of the plant.

Justin wanted to carry Abishai, but I let him hold his hand instead.

Tractor town!  Just a fun combine for the kids to climb up on.  Although, we had some kids not want to get out of the cab and the parents weren't around to help.

I like how they replaced the sharp blades with wood planks!  Although there was a fence to keep the kids off of the other sharp edges.

Big brother got up there and helped.  Sweet!

Pedal cars!  The other farm used to have these but not since we've been back.  Some kids were taking 2 laps around, I let my kids do 3.  But there were no fights that I knew of and the middles went back again and again.

Go Keturah!

I asked Abishai to give the cows a hug, and he did!  The kids had to climb the big set of stairs in this mini barn in order to go down the big slide!

Peek a boo!

Benaiah was helping Abishai with some of the things in the fenced off toddler area while I was taking pictures of the other two kids, but he said that Abishai did go on these mini version of the pedal cars.  I love how they used the raised mats to make it easier for the younger ones.  There was also a dedicated playground, smaller hay bale climbing element, a sandbox and fake farm animals scattered around.

But of course, one of Abishai's favorite things were the swings.  They were different colors, so he tried both the green and blue ones!

I love how expansive this area is!  Either they get large crowds on the weekends, or they just plan to give people plenty of space to mill about.  Remember, this "Tractor Town" is $5 on it's own.  We paid $8 for the field trip rate for everything.

Benaiah said, "Mom, I'm stuck! My legs won't go anywhere!  And Abishai can't even drive the car without standing up to get closer to the wheel.  Cute wooden car though!

There was a couple of these and they are gigantic "Guess Who?" games!  Way cool!  You try to guess what the other person's character is by asking yes and no questions and elminating the different characters on the board based on the answer. For example, you ask, "Does your character wear glasses?" And if it does, you put the ones NOT wearing glasses down.  Very creative version of it!

Abishai proving once again that he's fearless.  Benaiah would be screaming bloody murder if we asked him to climb that ladder and made him do it at that age.  Not Abishai.  He did say no to the other rope ladder and a bigger slide, because he does know his limits.

Scaled it in under 5 seconds!

Ready to slide.

For the younger kids they have this mini hay bale maze that the parents and some kids can see over, but not all of them.  Abishai loved it and almost went back in by himself until he realized no one was following him.  It was a basic labryinth design, circular with a few dead ends and you go from the outside to the middle and then the middle back out to the outside using the same path.

Beautiful wooden tractor.  Again, Benaiah is way to big for this, but that's ok.  Abishai loves having a playmate of any size!

Giant wooden "Connect 4" game.  Abishai knew what it was and what to do and wanted us to pick him up to do it!  So we obliged.  Because it's cool!

Working hard!

Benaiah's first attempt at getting on the hay bale stack.  Nailed it! Or not!

And another one of all 4!  Why? Because I just can't have enough! Benaiah will be gone before we know it and then it will be even harder to get them all together (at least until they have kids and all move back into the same neighborhood as we do or will be, lol).

Because he's adorable.

Excavators!  Abishai dance and sung the excavator song from Blippi while he waited his turn.  Then big brother helped him dig!  Benaiah used to love these kind of diggers at The Children's Museum of Indianapolis where they would scoop up rubber (not wood) chips.  These diggers seem newer and swung around easily!

Little hands, big hands, dig, dig, dig!

Why yes Benaiah took a turn on them!  And surprisingly, it didn't break!  He spent 10 minutes digging the prefect hole.  Abishai was like, "When is it my turn again?"

Bwahahahahahaha!!!! So funny! Although, I might have switched the older two around.  Abishai likes to do these pictures, too!  And this sign was near an incredible set up of 4 (maybe 6?) porch swings hanging from a gazebo, facing outward, so parents and grandparents could rest while the kids ran around.

Yeah, we almost fill up one of these signs!  I think the kids are in their appropriate spots for their personalities. Cuties!

They had a couple of live animals, too, including goats and a llama.

Time to line them up!  5 ft, 10 inches.

Abishai thought he needed to be in every picture.  4 ft, 2 inches.

Justin is 4 ft, 9 inches (and I'm sure will be taller than me by winter's end).  Nice winter boots, Justin!  That's what happens when you're fit grow rapidly and none of the shoes I managed to save for you, fits!  So, he clunked around in winter boots with their liners taken out that were two sizes too big.

Road sign!  You do have to cross the country road, to get from the Upicks and tractor town to the farm store and sweet shop (each has their own parking).  But the road is not busy at all.  Tuttle's is about 30 minutes from our house and we live close to the outside edge of the Indianapolis, way far out in the suburbs, close to the county line. Tuttle's is in Greenfield, which is northeast of us near the airfield at Mt. Comfort where the air show always was.  It's not that bad a drive actually, especially since we've become used to the 30 minute drive to gymnastics every week.  The farm store is open all year.  AND Tuttle's is NOT open on Sundays because they believe their family and all their employees should have time for family (and church perhaps?), even during the busy fall season!  Color me impressed!

Time for a little snack in the Cafe' and Sweet Shop, especially since we lasted 4 hrs without a stroller and Mommy solid flexiclips on Sunday.  Abishai had an apple doughnut and thought the apple cider slushie was his, but it was really mine.  I actually took it back right after this picture so he wouldn't take a bite of doughnut and then leave crumbs of it on the straw of the slushie because it was NOT a gluten free doughnut.  I certainly don't need those gluten crumbs!

The middles got caramel apples with sprinkles.  We did get to seem them dip more apples, too.

There was also fudge, apple or pumpkin doughnuts, pop, hot dogs, bbq pork sandwhiches, fresh chips, etc. etc. to purchase.

Another slushie since he didn't get one on our other apple orchard field trip.  One thing I did also notice was a total lack of bees and wasps around.  Even the trash cans weren't swarmed by them.  That made eating out much more pleasant.  We had a horrible time with wasps at the zoo on Friday and then again the day after this at a rural playground.  I think it helped that it was a cooler day and we were on pavement and their was only 1 or 2 trash cans.

Love this pun!  Actually, our traffic jams aren't that bad and only happen in certain stretches of the highway in and around the town, mainly downtown where southbound I-65 meets up with I-70 and part of it is because it's near a major hospital.  The other hot spot is I-69 and I-465 on the northeast side and north of there into Fishers and Noblesville.  That's the richer suburbs, where a lot of the people work downtown. It's been rapidly growing for the last 10 years and there's a ton of shopping malls and big box stores, including the new IKEA is.  And the traffic jams are from like 5-6pm maybe.  Not terrible.

Our apples and mini Grandma and Grandpa Howell pumpkins.  The min pumpkins are a Howell tradition because we always bought a mini pumpkin for my Gramma Koski every year.  Then my mom kept buying one every year and keeping it after my Gramma passed away.  And now I do it as a remembrance.  My sister Stefanie also does it every year.

P.S. I think this one is long enough, so whatever pictures I wanted to share from my phone or after we got home, I'll add to another entry.  I'm two days behind again on posting, but the next few days are quiet, so I'm sure I'll be catching up soon.