Pumpkins

    Every year it's the same thing. We HAVE TO have pumpkins for Halloween. Just part of the decorations and fun right? It's not Halloween if I'm not stuck chopping up a pumpkin for the kids sometime in the days leading up to it. Frankly, I'm quite sick of it. But as Jacob is only four, know I'll still be doing it for some years to come. At least this year I was comfortable enough with the big boys and knives to let them chop up their own. So that was only 2 not 4 I had to pull the guts out of and do my best to make a face like they had drawn on it.

     I am not a great pumpkin carver. I'm ok after doing it for so many years. I've been trying to hand this job over to my husband with no luck as of yet. I don't eat any kind of pumpkin anything. Don't know how to make any pies or what not. Wouldn't really want to anyway. The only one in the house who'd eat t anyway would be Robert. The one thing I've done is rinse some seeds and bake them for the kids to eat. Only Robert really liked them so we did it maybe once or twice.

     Pumpkin picking seems to be such a big family outing type of thing now. I don't remember ever going out to a farm and picking my own off the vine. Maybe once when I was a kid. We went to a stand where they were already picked and got to pick our own there. At least that's what I remember. Last year, or maybe the year before we took the kids pumpkin picking. Holy cow, what a waste. At least for me anyway. Sure it was fun and cute to let them run around the field and pick their own. But then they changed their minds too many times or when they saw what someone else had picked. Fun, fun for mom and dad.

     Then there was the cost. I don't remember it exactly but four pumpkins for four kids that they got to pick out themselves in the field was somewhere between $50-$60! Way too much for this family budget. Especially now. It's just too much for me to even think about spending on something that's going to get chopped up and thrown in the trash in a few weeks time. We did it once. We won't ever do it again. From now on we go pumpkin picking at Walmart. Under $4 a pumpkin no matter the size. So we hang there awhile and I let them dig out the biggest or whatever and change their minds a few times. For 4 pumpkins they got to pick themselves out of a box it's under $20! Can't beat that for me.

     Now before anyone goes off about supporting the local farmers and what not let me finish. We do, just not with pumpkins. More and more farms seem to have these harvest festivals now every weekend in October. All the kids are old enough to enjoy some parts of it as long as their is enough choice in what to do. I love the corn mazes. Rob and I went to one ourselves a few years ago it was so much fun we took the kids to a different one. Now we find a farm with a corn maze and then look to see what else they might have to do. We all do the corn maze together and then the big boys can do it again on their own while the little ones enjoy the animals or other things catered more to them. There can be a small playground, tractor or hayrides or both, pig races, music, food and of course a pumpkin field we generally stay away from. This years farm had a bounce house, corn shooter and pumpkin fling. It's a good day for everyone and we support the farm paying our admission, which times 6 adds up for them anyway. Without the extra cost of pumpkins we are able to do this. And we eat before we go and bring snacks in the car. It's what works for us to make it affordable and enjoyable. It would be nice to go do a maze without them again too though. Maybe next year.