Pumpkin Picking!

Between our Salt Lake trip and now, MUCH has been happening in our busy little life, and I'm posting this out of order, but I've got to start somewhere. It's the little things people, and one of the "little things" we decided to do this year was to take the girls pumpkin picking.

This was actually a new thing for me this year, I normally pick my pumpkins off of the bales of hay sitting outside the local grocery store. Not this year! We headed out to Sudbury and met up with Joni and Laura. We packed the kiddos in the cars, and went to a small farm in Framingham. We got there at a great time. It was a Sunday afternoon, it wasn't busy or crowded and it was extremely toddler friendly. I actually think that it wouldn't be the best spot for an older child who might want to actually pull their pumpkin off the vine, but it worked perfectly for our needs this year. They placed all of their pumpkins in rows in fields on the property and guests were able to walk about and pick whichever pumpkin they thought was best. They had wire wagons available for hauling pumpkins back to the farm stand, a tractor for kids to sit/play on, and a giant pumpkin----shell?---that the girls found fascinating. There were horses fenced in next to the patch and the girls got a kick out of watching their cousin feed them some grass. I was a bit terrified at the idea of letting my kiddos shove their cute little chubby hands (that I love to photograph so much!) into the face of a gigantic animal, so I didn't encourage that. Matt seemed less worried, and I may or may not have snagged a peak at Sophie giving one of the horsies a treat.

We decided to go with one pumpkin this year. To know me is to know my love of (okay, my OCD/CDO need for) traditions, so of course I HAD to carve something. Joni and Laura grabbed a couple (I haven't seen, but I'm sure they turned out great) for themselves, and then we were off! It was a great outing, nice fall weather, no crowds which is nearly impossible to come by in Boston, and the girls loved it! I loved it so much I think we'll have to find a place to do it in Salt Lake next fall. 

Here are photos of our afternoon in the patch, as well as our finished product, Jack, our first family jack-o-lantern. We put him in the window for the neighbors to enjoy, since we don't have a front porch.  Since this was a couple of days ago, he's since been retired to the garbage, but he'll live on in our fond memories through my iPhone photos. :D