pumpkin patch [2012]

there are always three givens come the third weekend in october. one, alabama is going play tennessee and [hopefully] win. two, we're going to go to the pumpkin patch. and three, my nephew is going to celebrate his birthday.

and this past weekend? all of the above happened. my nephew turned seven (7!) on saturday. we watched alabama beat the poop out of tennessee (although, i'll admit. i got a little nervous during the first half.) and on sunday afternoon, we went to the pumpkin patch at the request of the newly turned seven year old as a way to celebrate his birthday.

and since it was october in alabama, it brought 80º weather. i learned my lesson last year when i tried to dress all fall-like. complete with long sleeves, skinny jeans and boots. this year? i wore a tank, shorts and threw on an infinity scarf in the hopes of looking somewhat fall-like. eh, i think it worked. or not. either way, we had a beautiful, sunny day. and it could not have gone more perfect.

for the last two years, we've gone to a farm about half an hour south of us. and it's, by far, the best place we've gone to pumpkin patch. there's an inflatable area for all the kids. there's a ton of open space for people to run wild. and that's just what the cousins did this year. these kiddos... man, they love each other. and poor lexie (my niece), she's surrounded by boys. they have so much fun together; we're all grateful for that. and sometimes (ok, most of the time) they are a little out of control. but it's awesome anyway.

but back to the farm... there's also a tractor that takes you on a little ride to the patch. where they actually have pumpkins still in the patch for you to pick out. true, they might move the pumpkins in from somewhere else, but it's still just so much better than picking one out of a giant display. don't get me wrong... we'll be doing that too this year; the pumpkin cayden picked out is so small that it can't possibly be carved. but he picked it out. and he loves it. and it's adorably cute.

anyway, the place was packed this year. the line waiting for the tractor took forever, but was totally worth it. and once we picked up our pumpkin, we decided to just walk back to the car from the patch rather than wait in line on another tractor. we got about half-way there and a nice gentleman drove up in his off-road/golf cart/buggy-thing (technical term) and offered to not only take us to the top of the hill, but to take us to our car! he ended up being the owner of the farm and was so wonderfully nice that it really wrapped the day up perfectly.

i'm loving this little tradition of ours. want to see the last few years? 2011 / 2010 / 2009
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