…wherein she finally finishes writing about a 3-day period that was over a week ago…
Halloween was on a Sunday this year, both a good and bad thing. Good because there would be plenty of time to carve pumpkins, dress up, and meander around begging for candy off neighbors and strangers. Bad, because it could be a pretty long day waiting for the ‘big show’… made longer because Paul was leaving at 9:00 to go to a football game with his brother and dad.
Our friends Dianna and Tom and their kids saved my butt that day, by agreeing to go to “the” pumpkin patch. There are bunches of pumpkin patches in the area—heck there is one down the street and another a few blocks down from that with huge bounce-house slides—but to anyone in this area, there is only one “the” pumpkin patch. We have visited every year since Bunny was 2, and nearly missed out on that tradition this year, but squeaked in a visit just under the wire.
Uesugi Farms is about 40 minutes away, and we were still 15 minutes away when I felt something. Then I remembered something: I didn’t eat breakfast (Dumb, dumb, dumb! How do I do that?!?). There’s a McD’s up the road, thank goodness. I swung on through that drive through, and began to order Crappy Meals for the boys and Cheeseburgers for Bun and myself… “I’m sorry, Ma’am… we’re still serving breakfast.” D’oh! It was only 10:30. I have to say they were really nice and hooked us up with the meals we wanted anyway, since they’d started to switch the foods over for lunch. Sometimes you catch a break.
We tailgated in the parking lot, chowing down, then finally were ready to go inside the patch.
Never before have we been able to get a photo at the entrance, because usually it’s like the entry to Disneyland—packed with people, who’re not necessarily in the mood to indulge a photo op. As you can see, Halloween Sunday was a very good choice for the crowd-phobics. :)
Not far inside the entrance was this stand. Free honey? We were there. I am not really into honey, though Bunny really is, so we had to try some. First we had Black Sage, then Orange Blossom. Both were like some honey that had to be partly made by witches or angels, because MY WORD it was amazing. I promised Bun we’d buy a bottle of one or the other on our way out. (We ended up buying both, justifying it as a year’s supply of honey and because we could not choose. And because it was really nummy.)
The Gourd Ole Opry… (how cute is Cole there?!?)
He was working on this pumpkin’s face the entire time we were there.
Inspiration for later…
There were pony rides.
Ah, the cow train… I know I’ve said before that the names they put on each ‘car’ crack me up. Really, thet do. Riblet was my favorite this year, though you gotta love T-Bone, too. “T-Bone!” we yelled as Cole took off.
Running, running, running on hay--always a blast. :)
Going through the corn mazes reminded us of something: we really like their roasted corn stand. It’s a TOTAL rip off, at about $2.50 per ear of corn, but, fuggedaboudit. It’s amazing, and we have to have some every year. I wonder if we’d like our corn at home as much if I had a whole ‘fixins bar’? (Probably not.)
It is a scientifically proven fact that no one has ever taken an attractive photo of someone else eating corn on the cob. It’s messy, and you have to basically slobber all over our own food, plus I generally dislike eating with my hands or gnawing on food… but again, this corn is a rare exception.
Carter chose to climb a tree instead of partake in the corn feasting. Could he have been turned off by the sight of us all manhandling our food? ;)
Bellies full, we messed around with more ‘put yer face in this here hole’ things, and then got to my personal favorite… the hayrides!
There is something about the pumpkin patch that just exhausts a person. By about 3 p.m. we were ready to choose our clearance priced pumpkins and hit the road. Bunny found the largest one in the area I was willing to buy from {2 for $13}, and watching her roll it to the wheelbarrow was hysterical. I’d have taken a photo, but I was busy trying to push a wheelbarrow, dude.
Speaking of enormous pumpkins, this fellow was really something else by the time we were heading out to the parking lot. I love the details—the way the teeth go this way and that, the whiskers, wart, and that enormo-googly eye. I guess it’s like ice sculpting… in a day it was sure to look all messed up, but what a day that pumpkin had, huh?
When we were home, I insisted we take about 30 minutes to chill out before diving into the pumpkin carving portion of the day. After about 15 minutes, though, I was tired of the constant, “Is it time yet”s and got out the carving sets, and a large bowl for the ‘guts’. Bunny’s arm barely reached to the bottom of her choice, though I have to give her credit for truly cleaning it out. Just those two pumpkins more than filled that pretty big bowl there, which only looks small compared to The Great Pumpkin. (The seeds were great dried for a day, then roasted!)
Carter asked me to carve something insanely complicated on this pumpkin, but instead of a fire-breathing dragon in flight which is also about to attack a knight, I quickly knocked out an homage to the kitty pumpkin we’d admired earlier that day. He seemed happy with it even it the cat didn’t breath fire. :)
I was pretty tickled with the way this one came out—my first-ever carved only on the surface.
Bunny’s ‘kin (I am so tired of typing the whole “p” word!!!) was cute! I like the huge eyes. :)
The Werewolf, The Fire Chief, and The Vampire Hobo. My own version of the Village People! :)
( ♪ T-R-I-C-K… ♪ )
They went out with Daddy to gather candy, and I hear Cole was the hit of the bunch, being the Fire Chief, and also vey excited that all he had to do was say a few words and people would give him candy!! He’s asked to go trick or treating everyday since, and doesn’t understand why I keep saying it’s not the right day.
If you’ve made it this far, you probably deserve a treat yourself. So, um, go get one! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment