The Great Pumpkin Post

Every kid (whether they are named Linus or not) needs to get to the pumpkin patch at least once in their life. Even if they don't see The Great Pumpkin.


Our trip to the pumpkin patch was right smack dab in the middle of a beautiful Western PA fall. The colors were wonderful.

We even had the good fortune to have our visit be to a local farm . We've been twice now, and on the first of the trip I even remembered to take the camera!
First, we rode on a tractor trailer (heaven on earth for a 3 year old) along the farm road to the patch. We had the whole thing to ourselves!
This old pile of barn wood was on the side of the road and struck me as so beautiful. (sorry to interject in the pumpkin tale)



Anyway, the patch had been -ahem- "augmented" a bit to help it recover from the previous weekend's masses, so there were loose gourds-a-plenty to chose from. There were pumpkin vines growing from the ground in spots, so at least at SOME point there were pumpkins actually growing there (or trying). Linus noted nothing unnatural about the set-up and enthusiastically picked up dozens of different ones before settling on the chosen few.


After the arduous task of harvesting, it was time for the return ride back down to the main part of the farm.

You had to keep a TIGHT hold on your cargo. If you let go, Linus would remind you to HOLD THEM TIGHT! Everyone - and every pumpkin - made it safely down the bumpy road. Thanks to Michelle our tractor driver for being our photographer as well as an awesome farmer.

There were some other fun things to do at the farm and since we had the place pretty much to ourselves (we caught the last tractor ride of the day), we got free reign of the hay maze and the pedal bikes. Soon after I snapped this picture I set the camera down and got my own pedal bike and the three of us kicked up some dust together. Soon after THAT Richy and I were summarily asked to stay off of the bikes, as they were only for children (sigh).



All the hard farm work made for big muscles:

Linus has loved going to farms since he was tiny and it really is such a natural setting for him. There were several spontaneous "I LOVE this place!" statements from him.
We will continue to head back to the farm as often as we can, though I can't promise to always remember the camera.

Every kid should have at least forty acres.

Happy Birthday to Richy

Richy's little brother and his family recently moved to Wisconsin for school. They've been exploring and discovering all kinds of fun Wis-cahn-sen stuff.


So for Richy's Birthday they sent us some Root Beer Cookie mix from one of their local breweries that makes tons of funky sodas.

It was indeed funky. They were sweet and a tad spicy like a gingersnap and had a "titch" (as Linus would say) of a snickerdoodle vibe. They were soft like a puffy sugar cookie, almost cake like.
They came with a little icing so we personalized them a bit. It was fun. And worth licking around your mouth - no napkins here.
Thanks Uncle Ryan, Aunt Suzi, and Cousin Lilly. It was fun. Someday we'll have to trek to Sprecher's ourselves.