We didn’t make it to the pumpkin patch this year. We have no pumpkin filled photos with the far stretching fields or fond memories of traipsing through mud, petting farm animals, or enjoying a hayride.
I’m happy for every last one of you who DID end up there this year, and I hope to join you next year… but sometimes that’s just how life goes.
It’s not because we didn’t want to, but plans change, things get bumped, or you’re just too tired to strap boots and raincoats on all of the little people, to drive an hour in bad traffic, just to get to that peaceful little farm with all of the pumpkins.
So this year we walked to the grocery store in the heart of our city two nights before Halloween, because that seemed like the only option left.
We stopped at the large pumpkin display crate outside of the front doors.
Now picture six faces peering down into the crate that was supposed to hold a vast supply of pumpkins…
“Well, there are only two left guys, which one would you like to pick? The HUGE over-sized one with the extra mud, or the tall skinny one that leans drastically to one side with pre-carving carves etched into the skin?”
The HUGE one selected and loaded onto the roller board attached to the back of the stroller, and the four year old was told, “Yay! You get to walk home since this 15 pound pumpkin needs a ride!”
A quick grin was given to the dad behind us who was patiently waiting with his toddler to grab whichever $6 pumpkin we left behind.
We strolled that big orange thing home and I steadied it with one hand as we took bustling crosswalks through busy intersections.
Could you even imagine a great rolling runaway pumpkin in the middle of the street, blazing a trail between buses, cars, and pedestrians.
I’m happy to report that it’s safely waiting on our kitchen floor for tomorrow’s festive carving event.
“Can we carve Darth Vader on it, and a light saber, and BB8? Can we?”
I like how they truly believe in the artistic carving abilities of their parents. I also like how Pinterest has printable pumpkin carving templates. Who needs the force when you have that.
When I was a kid we lived in the country with two huge gardens on our four acres, so come Halloween we would simply go to our own patch to choose our pumpkins.
It was a yearly tradition that my mom and dad always did with us. The faces were often triangle eyes and mouths with missing teeth, and we’d leave the flickering candles inside of them late into the night.
I like carrying on my childhood traditions with my kids. It’s one of my favourite parts of parenting.
Today we spent some time learning more about pumpkins. We learned that they’re actually a fruit and not a vegetable. We learned that if they’re hollowed out they can be floated as boats that grown men can fall out of when attempting to float on the river (YouTube is so great), and we learned that the largest pumpkin in the world, so far, was grown in Germany and weighed in at over 2600 lbs.
Classic home school mom. She won’t just let you carve the pumpkin, you have to learn about it, count the seeds, make a chart, watch the videos… Classic Mom maintains her classic nature even on holidays.
On Halloween night, after costumes have been worn and unreasonable amounts of candy have been consumed, that little pumpkin with its flickering glow will get placed in their bedroom. (With a battery operated tea light inside of it, because hello, four energetic boys who are skilled at knocking over everything probably shouldn’t be sleeping near an open flame.)
“Mom? Can we fall asleep with the pumpkin again this year?”
“Yup. You sure can.”
Rebecca Bergman 
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