Pumpkin Patch - Fun Outing part 3

 I told you the past two days about our fun visits to the pumpkin patch. I only had one shot of us on the hay from 2009 but it isn't all that bad.  It is at the top. The photo to the left is this year.

The contrast of the two definitely shows how much the girls have grown in the past few years. We were sad that Princess number 3 wasn't with us this year but had the added bonus of having Princess number two with us. 

She had some fun taking some candid photos of the girls and herself (and me) while I wasn't aware. I am not including those as I have such cute one's of them that I didn't want to use the others. 

The girls wanted to carve pumpkins this year so we wanted to get large enough pumpkins that we could have some good area to carve them.  
 
They each picked one for themselves and I picked one for Princess number three so she could have fun carving with us as well. They insisted I get one for me also. 

It has been a few years since we carved pumpkins together. The past few years, we have been kinda lazy and used the little "potato head" pumpkin kits which gives them the three D look. 


Princess two had a hard time carrying her pumpkin as I don't think she wanted to get dirty. The other girls (as you can see) pulled them right up against them. Princess two tried to use arm strength. I laughed as I grabbed one pumpkin in each hand and marched them over to the trailer. I guess pruning, shoveling, moving gardens and other house hold tasks has kept me kinda strong over the years. 


I took a long walk to where the squash were and grabbed four of the spaghetti and one of the butternut as the girls wanted some. 

In the top picture, you can see the squash all over the trailer. We went on the last day for the year and they told me to take what we wanted and pay what we wanted. I paid $25 for the entire trailer. 

When I talked to the owners son this time, he said last year, they had NOTHING left. I was glad we went early this year. It was PACKED while we were there. We ran into about four families we knew and spoke with a few.

They stop the trailer by the gourd section but I didn't want decorations, just stuff we would use. I did get a large banana squash and a Hubert as well. I bake them and then freeze the meat for later use. I got the all the pumpkins and the large squash and the smaller all for $28 this year. It is a much better deal than the store.

We had our first butternut squash of the year on Sunday as my wonderful neighbor gave us two from his garden. He keeps us in produce most of the summer and fall.  

I also use the squash to make that soup that I made for Princess number one's wedding last Christmas. Here is a link to our squash / Curry soup. It is one of my favorites. 

These were some of the gourds one of our friends picked up for her house. I thought they were too colorful to pass up taking a photo and sharing it with you. Wouldn't it be fun to grow all those in your own garden? 

We had so much fun at the pumpkin patch, I know other cities that have them as well. Perhaps finding one would be a fun outing for your family as well!