Ohlone Village Day at Deer Hollow Farm

Since Jane's birth, I have been on the lookout for some more family activities that I haven't done yet and one was going to Deer Hollow Farm at Rancho San Antonio preserve. Once a year, they open up their Ohlone Village to the public and have demonstrations of what life was like for this group of Indians.

I absolutely loved it and found it fascinating- William like it but said that he learned nearly everything at Scout camp.

They showed us how to make a bow and arrow

An archery demonstration 

Had us sit in a replica sweat lodge where the men went to remove their smell before going hunting

They even had a replica redwood tree home which was really tiny- even smaller than our previous studio apartment :-) William and Jane nearly filled it completely

The most fascinating station for both of us was where they used ground acorns to make flour. What a laborious, time intensive process. They had to grind the particles several times so that they were small enough and then they had to soak them for several days so that they could at least be edible. It made me so thankful for our modern convenience of flour. 

We then went to Deer Hollow Farm which had your basic barn yard animals of cow, duck, and sheep 

The old barn

We then went back through one of the upper trails of Rancho San Antonio back to our car

I loved the sunlight streaming through the trees

Filoli and Pumpkin Patch

We had a Google offer for Filoli that we had to use before it closed for the season, so one Saturday in October we went. It was William's first time and so he really enjoyed the house but since it was the end of the season, the gardens were fairly dead. Not nearly as impressive as when I went in April with all of the tulips- that is really the time to go.  

Filoli Fall Decorations

We then tried to go to Ardenwood Farm's Harvest Festival because I went last year and LOVED it and sadly, the website said that they were open until 5 but in reality it was only 4 :-( But at least we were able to go to the pumpkin patch just across the way. 

Jane in particular loved this one pumpkin. She clapped for it

And even kissed it.

So we just had to buy it to her delight (and yes, that is dirt all over her bib- she had way too much fun playing with it and sampling some :-) 

What big ears and hair you have :-) 

Halloween 2012

Jane was Tinkerbell this year for Halloween and she was able to wear her costume several times to Googleween, ward trunk-or-treat, and then on Halloween.

I was so excited for us to use our Mickey Mouse Ghost buckets that we had gotten at Disneyland earlier in the month as they had two sizes- one for mama and one for baby :-)



Jane really is such a character when she is out in public as she loves to be the center of attention, making all Weof these funny faces and poses  

Stop- Hammer Time
She particularly loved the candy part- you can see her in the photo reaching down for some

And then look how happy she was that she managed to get one in each hand :-)

She loved walking around to all of the trunks, particularly though to this one where a little boy was handing out candy. She stayed there for 10 minutes and I took her away crying and put her down but she managed to find her way back to him ;-)

She had such a great time that she was completely exhausted

I did manage to get some holiday decor up. I know that I am way behind the times on making these but I saw the idea on Our Best Bites this year and made them out of baby food jars

Here they are with the Mickey's

And then our pumpkins

Jane wore her costume at the small in-home day care that she goes to and her awesome provider termed her "TinkerJane" :-)

And here she is with her two buddies, Gracie and Sadie

We also went to a fun little Halloween party where there were fun songs and games. We didn't officially go out trick-or-treating but we did have a few people come and trick-or-treat us and that is the first time it has happened since we moved to California!

 I have to include this final photo because it shows her toothy grin where you can see all 6 teeth. And her "I Love Mummy" shirt :-)

Googleween 2012

This was the first year that we ended up going to the kid's version of Googleween and it was super fun, but we learned that you need to get there as soon as it starts to beat the crowds. At least we know for the future :-)

They even made the pumpkins "Googley"

 Jane was obviously super excited at the prospect of going trick-or-treating, though we actually spent our time doing the activities and not waiting in line for the treats

They even had a little pumpkin patch where Jane literally picked out the pumpkin she wanted :-) 

 But Jane's absolute FAVORITE part of the whole experience was the petting zoo. We spent at least 30 minutes in the pen as she petted an alpaca

 Chased after the ducks

 She has absolutely no fear with these animals like the goat, bunnies, turtle- one of the workers of the petting zoo said that kids her age were usually really frightened by the animals but obviously not Jane :-) She now goes up to dogs that we see in the park and wants to pet them as much as these ones and most are not as patient as these ones :-)

 We were also able to go on a tractor ride, which Jane liked as well (I love her tongue sticking out!)

They also had cannon blasters, face painting, and bead necklace making that we passed on this year. Thanks to Google for providing such a fun and memorable event!

Uesugi Farms Pumpkin Park

I now have Mondays off so on those days, I try and do a bigger excursion with Jane and so the Monday before Halloween we went to Uesugi Farms. I had been a couple of years ago with my sister Sarah and loved it so I was excited to take Jane and thankfully, she enjoyed it as well.

 Jane enjoyed Pumpkin Pete's Enchanted Hay Ride- and I absolutely love her shirt :-)

 The hayride took us through a beautiful field of sunflowers

 and thousands of marigolds.

The GIANT pumpkins

 

and Jane has a lot more growing to do before she catches up to this pumpkin

She is standing tall this fall though :-) 

 

And the Elf Princess became the Pumpkin Queen

 She liked dancing with Dora

 Attempting to push the wheelbarrow

Playing with the squash

 

Walking through the kiddie corn maze

And riding the train

This place definitely puts me in the Fall spirit