10/28/2013

Annual Pumpkin Fun

Not much says fall and Halloween to me like visiting a local pumpkin patch. This year we lucked out and I won 2 tickets to Ganyard Hill Farm in Durham so we headed there a week ago for a morning of family fun.


We took a hayride, enjoyed the corn maze (really more of a corn path, but it was a perfect stroll) where Dylan picked some corn to feed to the goats, plucked a bit of cotton, and of course each picked a pumpkin.

Posing with our 3 pumpkins on the hay bales.

We also explored the weird & exotic patch - quite a fun mix of colors & textures.


To spread out the fun and make sure our pumpkin didn't rot (the weather can be crazy in NC although I think last week was cool enough, it would have survived), we waited until yesterday to carve. Dylan was excited about the old kits I pulled from the Halloween boxes. He wanted to do a ghost design, but our largest pumpkin was too small for it or any of the others. Instead, we encouraged him to do an "old fashioned" jack 'o lantern.


Dylan drew the face design. Then I cut the top so we could scoop out the insides. He helped me separate the seeds for roasting before we scraped the inside and carved the face. Finally, Trent helped him start squeezing out some glitter glue (leftover from one of the old kits that, of course, he had to use once he saw it - honestly amazed this stuff hadn't dried out). So, yes, we have a one of a kind, sparkly jack o' lantern this year.

Freshly picked on the left and with one carved on the right.

We ended our fun with roasted pumpkin seeds, of course. A first for Dylan.


And a bit of a science lesson for our 4 year old - from picking the pumpkin off the vine at the farm, to carving & scooping, to roasting and eating. Fall is off to a fun & festive start here.

What is your favorite fall activity?

2 comments:

  1. Tristan and I were looking at a few designs today to carve tomorrow. I kept trying to convince him of a normal "Jack" face, but didn't have much luck. I think we did come to a compromise that won't have me sitting in front of a pumpkin ALL NIGHT. Love the addition of the sparkles.

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    Replies
    1. When did pumpkin carving become so fancy? (Says she who has had a fake carved pumpkin with bats on it for the last 8 years LOL) Can't wait to see what your carving looks like!

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