Would it be Autumn without pumpkin picking? Certainly not in our household, with covid getting in the way the past two years it's been long overdue. Our local patch goes a little bit further than your bog standard, pumpkins in a field, grab one then pay and leave - you can definitely lose a couple of hours there, which is exactly what we did during this half term. The boys are always so excited to go and they couldn't contain themselves when I whispered to them this morning that's what we where getting up to today.
Both the boys hadn't got to sleep until almost one o'clock in the morning as they had been away, so I wasn't sure if they'd have the energy for traipsing round a muddy field with a wheelbarrow and maybe we should go another day. But naturally they woke with barrels of energy and insisted they where up to it, so we wrapped up warm and headed out. The weather for the rest of the week was forecasted downpours so it seemed the smartest thing to do as if anyone remembers the October of 2019, it had rained so much that the patches where actual swamps. Thankfully I think we timed it perfectly as there was some mud slosh, but nothing our wellies and boots couldn't handle, though I did feel grateful I wasn't a toddler owner because I saw a few completely caked in mud from slipping over - bless them.
The patch is really full of nostalgia for me, the first time I took Noah when he was only two and I'd just found out I was pregnant with Pip. The last time I visited was actually the last trip we had made as a nuclear family as I'd made the big (and best) choice to end that relationship and now three years later I went back - absolutely owning single parenthood and loving every aspect of my life, a complete 180 since our last visit. I'm so proud of me and my team and how far we've come, but that is a whole other post for another day... back to the pumpkins.
At the patch the first thing the boys wanted to do was get in a wheelbarrow and have me push them around, standard. Of course I obliged though they're not exactly dinky little dots and eight and six. Trust that the next thing they wanted was to go on the tractor rides, now Noah for the longest time was a tractor die hard fan, 'trac tracs' where his thang and whilst he's grown out of that somewhat, he still gets excited with the idea of potentially riding on one. With this being at the top of the patch, up a steady incline, I sacked the boys out of the barrow and we took turns pushing it up, in fact they where almost arguing over who could push it. The tractor ride was short and sweet but this year they had set up little decorations on the fields you drive round which was a welcomed addition - the boys had one thing on their mind after, food.
Over the years the food situ has gotten so much better, the babes had sausages and spooky biscuits along with what felt like a gallon of apple juice, the prices are obviously hugely inflated but I think you expect that when you visit most places and eat there these days. We scoffed down our food and then got to some serious picking, I just wanted a small dinky pumpkin - but I encouraged the boys to get much bigger ones. We set each other tasks to find the funniest shape, the wartiest and the biggest - they absolutely loved it. The only thing we didn't do was the pumpkin bouncy castles as my two are getting a bit bigger now and it was mainly full of smaller children, as once a smaller human raiser, I hated when big kids would come barging on it would send the fear of god into me so I thought best not.
Before we knew it two hours had gone by and we where ready to pay for our pumpkins and head home to carve them. Nanna tried to persuade us to make pumpkin soup but quite frankly it tastes like toilet water so we think we'll pass on that one mother. The boys bundled into the back of the car, sans wellies because there was no way I was having those muddy footprints all over the back of the leather seats. Top tip is to take a big ikea bag to whack the pumpkins and wellies in so there isn't any mess in the boot. We had a fab day out & we'll definitely be back next year.
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