October. The month that says summer is finally over, and it’s time to embrace fall. Pumpkin lattes, crisp leaves, sweaters and pumpkins. You can either spend your time mourning the end to a fun summer, or you can have some fall fun.
Which is probably why whenever I look at my phone I see all of my friends at apple orchards and petting zoos and pumpkin patches. It looks like a ton of fun and makes me want to do it too. But it also seems like a lot, and sometimes it stresses me out. Am I making plans because it’s fun, or because I’ll feel like I’m missing out if I don’t?
But the power of the internet and fun looking pictures is strong. So we made plans to go to our favorite farm and get some pumpkins. I knew we’d have fun, but as we started thinking about logistics, it started to feel like too much. And did we really want both kids to miss their naps? We began to question how much we wanted to go there. Could we still have fun but with less effort? Less crowds? Maybe next year when kids are a bit older we can be more ambitious?
So we decided to go to a garden center just ten minutes down the road. That opened at 7am, which meant that we could go early while the kids were happy and before their naps. And guess what? We were the only ones there! It’s just easier to keep the tiny ones in order and also manage to browse pumpkins when you’re not fighting crowds.
They had everything we needed (pumpkins and hay bales and photo opportunities), and a few added bonuses we hadn’t counted on. There was a mini corn maze (which if you know me, you know how much I HATE corn mazes), that was perfect. It only took us a few minutes to finish and E was able to solve it on his own. Win! And the best part was they had mini shopping carts for kids. E grabbed one and pushed it around by himself. He picked out 3 small pumpkins he wanted and put them in his cart, and I’ve never seen him more excited or proud. I will seriously go back here every weekend and let him buy a $3 pumpkin to see him that happy.
