If you give a kid a pumpkin, she’ll want a hayride to go with it. After that bumpy hayride with a dozen other sweaty kids, she’ll definitely need to have her face painted by a 15-year-old who draws a spider on her face. And of course after that, she will need to do the corn maze – where she’s gets lost after the first turn and neither of you can find the way out. After the corn maze, she’ll be exhausted, so of course she’ll need a snack – apple cider and caramel apples all around! After her sticky snack, she’ll get a second wind and will need to do all the activities: the jump house, the petting zoo, and the pony ride. Whew! Picking out a pumpkin is exhausting!
After picking out the pumpkin, she’ll want a family photo on the hay-bale. As you’re grabbing the four, eight pound pumpkins on the way out, she’ll request the little baby pumpkins because she can’t have big pumpkins without the baby pumpkins. As you drag them back to the car covered in mud in the 90 degree weather, she’ll see the gift shop – and because she has always wanted a scarecrow doll or never had a pumpkin scoopers shaped like Elmo, she has to get them…your $4 pumpkin now costs over $100 for all the rides, snacks, experiences and ***fun***.
I love fall festivities as much as the next mom, I truly do – it’s the expectation of cramming all these events into one day (usually an early weekend morning), along with half the city, and spending an arm and leg for something that is going to sit on your porch and rot that gets me. {Rant over.}
If you are excited about pumpkin patch activities and ready to brave the season, here are just a few of our favorites around town. If not, you can follow me to my local grocery store for my $2 pumpkin.
