Pumpkins, pumpkins and MORE Pumpkins!

Yes, it's time again for our annual pumpkin outing with the kids. You'd think after 2 trips to various fruit farms, and such that we would have picked out our pumpkins by now! Nay, nay! The boys wanted to get them at the same place we have gotten them since moving to Ohio--Fulton Farms on the 202 between Troy and Huber Heights. It is a reasonable place I think, but that could be because when we lived in Mesa pumpkins at "pumpkin farms" and the like were outrageously priced, in my humble opinion, and you didn't get a very big one! When we don't do the hayride, we usually pick pumpkins from under their big tree out front, good sized ones for only $1.50. These are pictured above. However, this year, Noah ran over to the BIG pumpkins and declared, jokingly, "I want this ONE!"

I laughed, and said, "Okay, if you can lift it, it's yours!" And, yes, I wasn't bluffing, I meant it. So, he hauled a wheelbarrow over there and popped in without effort! Of course, upon seeing this, Jackson decided that if his older brother bagged a "biggie" then he wanted part of that action too! So, I told him the same rule applied, "Lift it, It's YOURS!"

So, he did the same, albeit with a bit more effort than Noah did.

Finally, there was Daniel, who at this point was much more interested in the train than picking pumpkins (go figure!). So, his older brothers were elated to get these pumpkins and began yelling to Daniel to look how big these pumpkins we were getting were! Well, that did it! He hurriedly ran over anxious to get his turn at a big one! Well, I told him the "rule" and he said, "No problem!" Of course, we took his picture, after he sought out his pumpkin. THEN, he attempted to get it in the wheelbarrow.

Well, needless to say, there was a lot of huffing, puffing, grunting, and eventually crying, as Daniel struggled to get his over and into the wheelbarrow. There was NO WAY he was going to be able to lift that in there! And, I just thought, "He's gonna get a hernia if he keeps it up!" There was so much grunting on his part, I just started to giggle. He of course, was not amused by this! I will say that he lugged that pumpkin all the way to where we were standing. Determined he is! So, after all that "energy" was used, I told him that if I could lift that pumpkin in the barrow one handed then he could have it. Lucky for him, I was able to do that! Geez, that thing was a monster! We ended up getting some smaller $1.50 ones for John & I to carve. Our wheelbarrow sure was bountiful, I must say!

All in all, it was worth every penny! And, each of the boys pumpkins were right at 30 lbs. Of course, that is as far as the regular cash register scale goes. Daniel's pumpkin, well, that is another story.....his pumpkin was TOO HEAVY for the regular register, and we had to move it to a different one. His pumpkin weighed 33 lbs!!!!! I guess at 30 cents a pound, it was worth it. We were able to get 7 pumpkins for the LESS than the price that a family of 5 hayride would have cost us. And, we got 7 instead of the 3 the hayride would have given us. PLUS we got 3 massively huge pumpkins.

The kids were so excited! And, I'm glad they had a fun time picking them out. Tonight, we are carving them with much pumpkin fanfare! More pics on that after we "make them "spooky", according to Daniel!