Take Time to Pick the Pumpkins

One of the disadvantages to living on a large piece of land is the lack of neighbors. You know, the kind that come over to borrow a cup of sugar, who spot you over the fence working in the garden and offer a glass of iced tea, or the kind that bring a group of trick or treaters to the front door on Halloween. We live on such a piece of land. It has always been due to the lack of the latter that I have refrained from decking the halls with Halloween decor. After all, we have never even had a trick or treater ring the bell…actually; we don’t even have a bell. We do, however, have a lot of land. In fact, in the past we’ve mused that it might be fun to take an acre of it and plant nothing but pumpkins, then sell them on the street corner. One year in our 50 sq ft garden we amassed over 70 pumpkins. There were so many that the vines traveled over the fence and into the surrounding woods. We had plenty of pumpkins that year. So many that we were able to provide each child in Abbie and Jenna’s kindergarten class with their very own pumpkin. So, for the first six years of my daughters’ lives, I have been able to bypass the typical Halloween activities. But this year, I happened upon a dilemma.

The girls came home with a math assignment from school in which they had to guesstimate the width and weight of their pumpkin. Pumpkin? We have no pumpkin. Not one. Our own private harvest was a bust this year. My husband blames it on the lack of rain. I, of course, blame it on him. But that is another blog entry.

So, what is a mom to do? Rather, what is a scrapbooking mom to do?

“Take them to the grocery store and get a pumpkin,” my husband says.

The grocery store? The grocery store? What fun is that? What kind of a mother would I be if I took my children to a grocery store to buy a pumpkin? It didn’t seem right.

“Let’s go to the pumpkin patch!” I say enthusiastically.
“Pumpkin patch? What is a pumpkin patch?” Asks Abbie.
“A place where they grow pumpkins.” I reply.
“Just pumpkins?” Jenna adds questioningly.
“Yep, just pumpkins.” I say.
“But mom, the pumpkins will be gone already. Wednesday is Halloween.” Jenna adds.
“I don’t think so, Jenna.” I reply.

I then explained to my girls that a real pumpkin patch is nothing like our backyard garden where we used to get our pumpkins. There are literally hundreds of pumpkins…maybe even thousands at a real pumpkin patch. It dawned on me that they had never been to such a place. They are almost 8 and I haven’t even brought my children to a pumpkin patch.

It also dawned on me, at that particular moment, that there are events and moments in the lives of your children that should not be missed and which time a camera must be handy. You could easily make a list of them yourself. Here is mine:

The moment you first set eyes on them.
The moment their grandparents first set eyes on them.
Their first steps.
The 1st bite of birthday cake.
The first time they open a gift.
Sitting on Santa’s knee.
Crying on Santa’s knee.
Their first haircut.
Losing their first tooth.
The first day of Kindergarten (1st grade, 2nd grade, etc.)
Their first best friend.
Posing with the family pet.
Their first ball game, sporting event, dance recital, et. al.
Their prom night.
Their graduation day.
Their wedding day.

…And their first trip to a pumpkin patch.

Oh well, better now than never.

Credits: Autumn Gold Collection Mini. Vista Linda Collection, ScrapGirls Bountiful Collection, Stitches Embellishments, Curls Embellishments, Army Brush, all from ScrapGirls.com.