Happy Fall Y'all!

It's pumpkin time!  Hooray!  Like everyone else, I absolutely love fall.  This is one thing that I really missed while we lived in California.  The weather in California is so nice.  It is always so nice.  So nice that it even started to be a little bit boring and monotonous for me.  I love big sweaters, knee high boots, warm soup, and everything pumpkin.  I am a creature that needs change and seasons, so bring on the fall and the cold weather!

We have some great pumpkin patches and farms in the area that we live in.  We also have great fall foliage that turns such beautiful colors!  This place is gorgeous in the fall.  The pumpkin patches and farms can get quite busy around this time of year.  We try and make adjustments where we can so that the boys can still participate and see the fall festivities, but also not be too overstimulated.

Ez & Ash Fall 2013

First off, we always go in the middle of the week.  Always.  Jason will take work off and I will have the boys miss preschool that day.  Are you thinking that I am mother of the year for taking the kids out of school?  Hey, you do what you got to do!

The middle of the week is not as crowded.  Ezra and Asher don't do well with large crowds.  Especially Ezra.  He will get too overstimulated and it will cause something like a not nice tantrum or him running away and endangering himself.  So we always try to go on a day that isn't busy (and a positive side- there are no lines and the admission is cheaper!!).

Cox Farms is our favorite.  They have slides, farm animals, hay rides, and all of the apple cider and apples that you can eat for free.

We first visited the goat farm.  Asher really likes animals.  He has always been so interested in them.  I've read numerous stories and studies that state that animals are so beneficial for children with autism.  They help children display more social behaviors; smiling, looking at faces, etc.  Animals can also help in comforting a child with ASD and in teaching empathy.  I think this is totally true for Asher.  He lights up when he sees animals.  He signs more and makes more verbal sounds around animals.

But Ezra?  Yeah, Ezra hates animals.  He is terrified of them.  He always has been.  Ezra is very sensitive to sounds and he really hates animals sounds.  Not only does he hate the actual sound an animal will make, but if I make an animal sound like 'moo moo' or 'woof woof'  he does not like that either.  He will cover his ears and move his hands over his ears very fast like he is trying to wipe gunk off of them.  When he watches a movie or plays on the iPad I always mute them.  He doesn't like sound at all.  There might be other reasons why he doesn't like animals, but the most obvious reasons is because of the sounds they make.  Maybe we should get this kid a dog? ;-)

It looks like we are torturing the poor kid!

 Ezra finally gave in to pet the baby goat.  They were the cutest things ever!  But he still had to protect himself. :-)

Finally petting the goat!

Asher was terrified at first.  You probably can't see from the pictures, but Jason and I took turns holding him for the first 15 minutes until he calmed down.  Then he went to town petting the goats and got quite verbal with them.  He is our screamer and our jumper!  I love that about Asher.  He is always full of excitement!  Asher means "happy one" in Hebrew, and he really lives up to his name- most of the time!  You can see what I mean in our videos.

You can also see that Asher decided to use the goat walkway like a slide.  The kid loves slides but it definitely made for very dirty jeans!



Onto the slides.  My kids might be apprehensive with animals, but they have no fear in the height and speed department.  This farm has tons of little slides that are geared for the kids.  We didn't waste our time there.  Nope.  There is one gigantic slide at the edge of the farm that only the bravest go down.  Ez and Ash love this slide.  One time we were waiting at the top of the slide to speed down and a group of 8-10 year olds got too scared and backed out of going down.  And then there is always a few 5-6 year olds that get to the top and start crying until someone agrees to walk back down the hill with them.  Not my boys.  They are fearless.  Sometimes this can be a good thing, but sometimes this can be a really really really bad thing.  They don't recognize imminent danger which is very very bad.  But when it is time to ride slides it's a good thing!  Here is proof that they love the big slide!

Did I mention that pink is his favorite color?

Covering his ears because he hears an alpaca in the very faint distance

We had a great day at the pumpkin farm!  On the way home we snarfed down candy corn and homemade root beer like it was going out of style.  Yes, I am addicted to sugar!  Happy fall y'all!