It feels like forever since I’ve posted. It’s that time of year when the Kleenex are flying, and the Zyrtec is flowing.
In my last post about Peanut Butter Pumpkins, I told you about ditching the pumpkin patch for a farmer’s market. With all the colds going around, and the boys (i.e. Momma) not feeling 100%, we kept our pumpkin activities to a minimum this year. We found a local farmer’s market and picked out our pumpkins there instead of in the pumpkin patch.
Piggy One posing by our pumpkin picks. We let the boys each pick a small one. The hubs and I each picked a big one.
Piggy Two posing with his pumpkin. This was after he threw it and popped the cute little stem off. Did I mention he wasn’t feeling good? His grumpy was really dialed up.
While at the farmer’s market, we saw a letter from our Preschool from last year. We were able to locate Piggy One’s name. Fun!
My mother, Nanna, was able to go with us. She’s THE best Nanna in the world. I know you all think you’ve got the best, but ours is different. She is the original best Nanna. Just sayin.
When we got home, we started to decorate our pumpkins. I got out the markers so the boys could decorate theirs. Piggy Two threw his pumpkin again, threw the markers, got his extra stinkiness all over the place, so he went to bed.
His pumpkin got a big “B” and it was done. We managed to use toothpicks and Gorilla Glue (Best glue ever), to re-attach the stem. Unfortunately, the damage was done. With the heat, and the skin being compromised, his pumpkin lasted a week before turning to mush!
Piggy One decided he wanted a Mickey Mouse pumpkin. I drew a black line around the middle, made two buttons, and told him to color the bottom half red. He colored for a few minutes, about the size of a half-dollar, and “got tired”. After coloring the rest of the red, I broke out the paint. The top half got a nice glossy coat of black paint and done!
My pumpkin was next. I knew I wanted to paint mine. I painted it white, then mixed a few drops of black with the white and made a silvery grey. I used it to highlight and add depth. I should have used it first and then add the white, but whatever! I was nearly done with pumpkins at this point.
I added a cute chevron black and white bow when it was finished. As you can tell, I was very impatient and added the bow before it was dry. It was late, I was tired. Lesson learned. I ended up changing the bow to something brighter and happier in the end.
Daddy’s pumpkin was the only one we carved. I knew in this heat, these pumpkins wouldn’t last long. His lived about 5 days. It is already a heap of pumpkin soup living way back in the woods behind our house. Maybe the critters are enjoying it. 🙂
And here is our happy/sad pumpkin family. There was so much potential. Sometimes you have to grow where you’re planted, right? I had such high hopes for our pumpkins. Mine was going to have black polka-d0ts, and a monogramed letter. The boys’ were going to be an expression of their inner artist. The hubs was going to clean out the pumpkin with the boys waiting on bated breath to dig their own hands into the pumpkin goo. And our elaborately carved pumpkin would be the envy of any professional carver. Instead, we had one pumpkin thrown on the floor, one colored on for 2 minutes tops, no-one interested in carving a pumpkin, and a momma that was so DONE with pumpkins by the end of the afternoon that I slapped paint on hers without the patients to even let the paint dry before adding a bow.
I guess in the end, it is an expression of our pumpkin adventures. The boys love our pumpkins by our door – our sad front door that was going to get some hay bales, a corn stalk, a nice pretty fall wreath… One day I’ll have all the time in the world to make a show home Fall front stoop. This year, we cheated the pumpkin patch, but still had our own pumpkin adventures. These are the memories that make families, right?
Follow up: Two pumpkins (Mickey and white pumpkin) are still living on our front porch. The others are snacks for the deer in the back yard.
Have you decorated for Fall? What does your family do to your pumpkins?
Heather
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