pumpkin palooza

Friday, right after the kids got out of school, we hit the road and drove up to Aunt Susan's house for some pumpkin fun.  I'd been planning on taking the kids to Dallas to see the Fifty Thousand Pumpkins at the Arboretum since my last trip to big D in September.  I knew they'd love it and I wanted to go again, too. 

Susan and I decided to make Saturday a day of visiting pumpkin patches.  A Pumpkin Palooza.  I thought the palooza would be even more fun if the kids wore their costumes.  They were both on board with the costume plan until Carter decided he no longer wanted to be a gladiator.  Not sure what we're going to do Halloween (tomorrow) night. 

The Dallas weather was perfect for running around in hay mazes and rolling pumpkins. 

  Both kids are in the pic with me and the giant pumpkin below.  Carter ducked behind the pumpkin and you can see a sliver of Grace's red cape behind me. 

The next patch we stopped at had rides and games.  It was a little cheesy, but fun for the kids. 

Pigs love pumpkins, too.  This little guy was really going to town. 

Grace rode a pony and got her hair painted.  You'll see the hair paint in some of the other pics. 

This was the best part of the cheesy pumpkin patch.  The pumpkin chunker.  Grace and I are pulling back a tiny pumpkin and getting ready to launch it towards the Charlie Brown and Lucy cut outs.  (Check out Grace's striped hair.)

Below, the pumpkin, flying through the air moments after we let go.  I'm soooo getting Ray to build us one of these. 

After the kids and I launched a few pumpkins, we headed to the main event:  Autumn at the Dallas Arboretum - the home of the fifty thousand pumpkins.  I knew the kids would love this, so we paid our $47 dollars to park and enter the arboretum and then, well, things went downhill rather rapidly. 

Neither Grace nor Carter were particularly impressed with the pumpkins and they didn't want anything to do with having their pictures taken. 

We convinced Grace to take a picture of Susan and me in front of Cinderella's carriage, but Carter kept popping in front of the camera.  Thus, the pic below. 

Finally, I reached out and grabbed Carter's arm and pulled him onto my lap.  Then, he bit me just as Grace snapped the pic. 

We walked around the park for a few minutes and I let the kids know that their poor behavior was going to result in very early bedtimes when we got back to Aunt Susan's house.  This perked them right up. 

I was so happy that our visit to the arboretum ended better than it had started. 

People had been trowing pennies into the leaves of the giant lily pads behind us.  The kids wanted to throw some too, so I paid them with pennies to take this picture. 

Yesterday, we picked up a pie pumpkin at one of the patches.  This morning, we baked Susan a real pumpkin pie. 

Pie pumpkins are smaller, but have much better tasting meat than the big jack o'lantern pumpkins do.

We scooped the seeds, baked the pumpkin until it was soft, mashed the meat,  then mixed the mashed pumpkin with our pie ingredients.

While the pie was baking, we let Susan's horses try the pumpkin peel and seeds. 

Calvin loved the pumpkin. 

Our finished product.  Fresh pumpkin really is completely different than anything that comes from a can.  Susan loved the pie. 

October is almost over.  I will be sad to see the pumpkin patches disappear.  Pumpkin palooza was an excellent way say goodbye to October and the pumpkin patches.