Into the pumpkin patch

This weekend we kicked off into high gear fall activities in the Chicago suburbs, reminding me why fall is my favorite time of year. On Saturday, I had a cavity filled, so I figured I especially deserved some autumn fun to counterbalance that unpleasantness.


After I taught a full crochet 101 class at JoAnn today, we went pumpkin picking at Didier Farms with Tiffany and Nick, some law school friends. We each chose a pumpkin to carve, though the selection could be quite daunting. Dave and I picked out little pumpkins to represent the bunnies, too.

However, they have many family activities besides just pumpkin picking, and we participated in a lot of them. First of all, we visited the petting / feeding zoo, which was filled with a significant variety of small farm animals, including pigs, chickens, geese, goats, sheep, bunnies, donkeys, cows, and even a llama!

As you can tell, the cow was a highlight for me. Dave's favorite was the llama, and there was also a 20-pound rabbit that I wanted to steal very badly.


Seriously, look at this thing next to this completely average-size chicken. Good god.

Anyway, they also had a small carnival, where we did the FUN SLIDE! You know, the one you ride in a burlap sack. So great.

Most of their other rides were too kid-oriented for adults like us - but they were not keeping me off the fun slide.

The farm also had a corn maze, which turned out to be the first one I had ever gone through. It was fun, though Dave and Nick kept trying to freak me out.

(It wasn't hard to freak me out, either - I'm scared of the corn monster! Too many scary things happen in the corn in horror movies, from "Signs" to "Children of the Corn.")


Afterwards, we headed back to our house to carve our pumpkins. The pumpkins are, from left to right, mine, Nick's, Tiffany's, and Dave's. Tiffany also gave me the idea to sprinkle nutmeg on the inside of the pumpkin top so that it smells nicer when the candle is lit. Mmm!

You might notice that mine looks a little different. That's because I got the idea from a Halloween magazine to drill my pumpkin with tiny holes to make a design. I'm really happy with how it turned out; maybe next year I will do another drilled design.

We got a ton of seeds, so I'm going to roast those today to make a delicious snack. We also saved some of the pumpkin innards to feed to Zelda, because she loves them. (Go figure.)

Sighhh...I love Halloween.