Pumpkin Fun

(And yet again, weeks have passed and blogging has lagged...! )

We joined friends for a morning at the pumpkin patch, but for us, with a little twist. Rather than roam a field and choose a pumpkin out of a line up of 500 that have been previously arranged, we wandered the actual pumpkin fields until we found the perfect pumpkins, and then hacked the pumpkin off the vine. 

Way more fun if you ask my boys. 

Hay bales, tractors, jump houses, hay rides, animals, corn pits (think sand box but filled with corn kernals)... all the usual requirements for pumpkin patch fun.

Jax was happy to choose the first pumpkin he found once his feet hit the ground after the tractor parked. But then he realized there were "wots and wots of pumpkins to get!" and took off running.

Annalyse wanted a "clean and shiny pumpkin that didn't have any ugly parts on it." I was able to covince her we could clean the pumpkin at home and that a flat side was actually a god thing when it came to carving a face later on.

Before we left that morning, I gave my boys a talk that basically went something like: "We're not visiting the pumpkin patch for you today but for Annalyse and Jax because they're still young and love to do things like this and you've been able to enjoy hay rides and visit farms lots and lots of times already. So, I don't care if you're bored or not having fun because your number one job is to be a helper to all the little kids you see."

Well.

I was wrong. They were all in on running the fields to choose a pumpkin. And getting to break it off the vine themselves? Win.

In fact, Grady was so bent on looking at every.single.pumpkin that I labeled him a lost cause, told him he had 10 more minutes left to choose, and left to join the group at the corn pit.

Crisp morning air. Fun with friends. Enjoying the season.

Three hours of outside fun and plenty of time left to complete book work at home that afternoon. Home school: how I love thee.

A couple of weeks after visiting the pumpkin patch, we gathered with several home school families for a fall party to carve pumpkins, eat (way too many) yummy treats, and play crazy games. No pics from that messy fun; while kids ran and played and carved, I talked the afternoon away with friends.

October and November are my absolute favorite months of the year. October was a blur and my mind is made up to slow November down to really enjoy the last of fall.