Spooktacular fun!

Every Fall I have a small list of things I like to do with the family; apple picking, getting a pumpkin from the local pumpkin patch, carving pumpkins with our friends, and visiting a few of our favorite Fall festivals (pumpkin playgrounds). Due to most of October being a blur (preparing, traveling, and recovering from my sister's wedding did me in) and seemingly endless amount of rain on the free weekends we did have, I was seriously behind in my favorite Fall activities.

With just one week to go until Oct. 31st came upon us, it took Ian to bring up the fact we did not even have a pumpkin in our preparation for Halloween. Since I am all about efficiency and multi-tasking, I said let's go to Burke Nursery, where they have the pumpkin playground, and we can also pick out a pumpkin to take home with us. In my personal opinion, the cost of admission ($12 a person for everyone over the age of 2 on the weekends) is a little high and and not completely worth the money for what you get, but you can't beat the convenience factor of how close it is to where we live and it was a beautiful day to be out. Plus, at the end of the day, I'd be able to cross two things off my Fall activity to-do list.


We get to Burke Nursery and do the wagon ride first. Then we start tackling the slides and take our cue from Ian on what he wants to do next. Everything was going well and after about 40 minutes we ask Ian where to next. He said he wanted to get the pumpkin. Jeff and I look at each other and realize that our time at Burke Nursery was so not worth it if we were about to go pick out a pumpkin and leave. One lesson we've learned over the years is that when things are going well, not to push it. If Ian no longer wanted to be there, we weren't going to force it. So we go pick out a pumpkin. Ian takes his time, looks at each pumpkin of interest at every angle possible. He picks up a few, says he wants that one and then changes his mind. Finally he settles on a pumpkin and we go pay for it. As we are walking to the car, Ian asks where we are going. Both Jeff and I answer in unison, "We are going home." Ian says he is not ready to go home and wants to go back to the slides, the wagon ride, all of it. Jeff and I stop in our tracks and realize what just happened. Ian's main goal was to get a pumpkin. He was focused on this single thing. Everything else was inconsequential. But Jeff and I had it in our heads that we would get the pumpkin on the way out as it would make the most sense on exiting. It's funny how this lack of communication shows just how literal Ian takes things.

So after delivering the pumpkins to the car, we head back to the pumpkin playground and spend another 2.5 hours having a blast. The weather was perfect and I am guessing that the pressure of having gotten the pumpkin picked and out of the way helped Ian to have a better time.

As a side note, the pumpkin playground that is worth the money is Cox Farms. This place rocks! It is a little more expensive ($15 a person on the weekends for everyone over the age of 2), but the grounds are enormous and you can easily spend the whole day having fun.


While we missed the boat as a family apple picking this year (however, Ian did go with a good friend of his and their family), we plan to tackle Cox Farms this coming weekend. Fortunately we won't have the interruption of picking out a pumpkin.