Clearly we have angered the pumpkin gods or something

After yesterday's pumpkin/gourd/squash fiasco, I had the brilliant idea to play hooky today and have another run at the whole pumpkin-picking thing. So we chose a famous destination, roped my friend Maggie in to our plans, checked the patch website for operating hours, and set the GPS for the pumpkin patch of all pumpkin patches. They have not-one-but-two trains, a corn maze, a carousel, a pumpkin pyramid, onsite food, ponies, and round orange vegetables as far as the eye can see. I'm telling you, it's pure pumpkin paradise! Anyhow, after driving and driving and driving, and gleefully talking with Ro and Ree about what they wanted to do first, we arrived at the entrance to see a tiny little sign saying "Closed due to weather*."

Noooooooo!!!

I don't think anyone even said anything for a full minute. We just sat there in the blazing sunshine and stared and stared at that little sign like it was going to magically walk away or something. Oy. I had to come up with something good or someone was going to cry. So we turned the car around and headed for a nearby strip mall. We got Halloween craft projects at JoAnn Fabrics, hot chocolates at a little cafe, and a couple of pumpkins at the grocery store. And the day actually turned out ok. Phew.

 

Mmmm... Ro and Maggie got their hot chocs with whipped cream, Ree wanted hers plain:

Just look at those adorably filthy little fingers:

 If one drop will do, twenty drops is obviously way better:

The cheesiest smile ever:


I made one too, although it looks a little boring next to the more-is-more creations that the girls made:
 

Ro is beautiful in her concentration:
 

Well hello Mr Candycorn:
 

This is Ree's trademark cooking and crafting face:

Cute results (Ree's on left, Ro's on right):
 

The boring-but-dependable-grocery-store pumpkins are sitting in the back of the car. We're going to carve them up with TubaDad tomorrow, because he'll finally, finally be home from the longest business trip in history. And this time, nothing's going to go wrong. Nothing!! Do you hear me, pumpkins? You are going down tomorrow!  

* I know, I know, we did have that big storm on Tuesday, but it was a one-day thing. Sunny and clear yesterday and even hotter today, so we just never suspected it might be closed. Ah well...  
** Ro is in orange, Ree is in purple