Pumpkins

Here's ABCD at the Pumpkin patch nearby. He insisted on pushing around the ancient, rickety wheelbarrow full of pumpkins, and he took his job seriously. Hard work. He found the biggest pumpkin in the whole patch, he's pretty sure, and I think Mymy found the smallest, so it all evens out.

Grandma came to visit for a few days and we had a busy time. She arrived on Wednesday afternoon and first thing Thursday morning she went out to the land where our cows were pastured all summer to witness the slaughter and cleaning. There are three sides of beef at the butcher's right now, curing and waiting to be cut and packaged for us. IT was sort of a fiasco, though, with misunderstandings and tension that carried over all the rest of the weekend. What is that saying about mixing business and friendship? I always seem to forget until its too late.

Friday was the ultrasound of the baby, and everything looks good, though by the size of the thing I think I'm due right when I always thought I was, almost two weeks earlier than the doctor thinks. It was fun for Mom to get to see the ultrasound, and the boys, though I can't imagine that Mymy really got anything out of those grainy weird ultrasound images. And no, we don't know if its a boy or girl- we don't want to know. Although I have my suspicions....

Saturday we went to the pumpkin patch, our favorite one, for the pumpkin cannons and the funny personality of the old farmer who owns the place. Its full of antique farm equipment in various stages of restoration, you can feed the chickens, take a great hayride, pick pumpkins, gourds, apples, get lost in the corn maze, warm up by the wood stove outside, drink apple cider, eat popcorn, pumpkin doughnuts, look at the first blacksmith shop in the area, recently moved intact onto the farm, and if you're little enough, pedal a couple of old toy tractors around the place. That was Mymy's favorite part, ABCD says doughnuts were.

Last year we went with The Rising Star's parents, and it was overcast, cold, and really really fun. This year the weather was beautiful, but everything seemed off. The farmer was a little grouchy, the doughnut machine kept breaking, Mymy had an accident and I somehow hadn't packed any extra clothes for him. It was fun, but not AMAZING like last year.

At least the kids' costumes are done, and they wore them to church on Sunday for the annual costume-pumpkin walk. They're pretty simple, but cute. I'll put pictures up soon.