Falling for Pumpkin

Dear Em,
I feel like one of the telltale signs that fall is here is the prevalence of pumpkin flavored things. Somehow every food group is infused with pumpkin. I wish I liked the taste of pumpkin, I really do. All the foods & drinks look so yummy. I've tried to love pumpkin. I've tried forcing myself on coffees & muffins & pies. Unfortunately, I just can't get on board. I don't like pumpkin.

That wasn't going to stop your fun. My best friend came to visit with her sweet little 1 1/2 year old son, T. While I'll talk more about their visit in a later post, I think one of the highlights for the two of you was picking out pumpkins together. It wasn't anything flashy. We just went to a local coffee shop, Fresh Ground Garden Cafe, that also sells fun things like pumpkins & gourds. We let the two of you loose, & I can't believe how much fun you both had picking out the perfect mini pumpkins. It was so stinkin' cute.

We covered you in Daddy's button down shirt & a smock & let you paint the pumpkins at home. I love watching you paint, especially the kind of painting where you don't have to try to stay in the lines. While it requires a little more set-up & clean-up than plain old markers or crayons, watching the fun you have more than makes up for it. You have such a blast, & it's all your own creation. You love to paint in a hilarious mixing-up-all-the-colors-&-drowning-everything-in-the-dipping-water kind of way. Your mini pumpkins were truly masterpieces.

Daddy & I never really got into the spirit of pumpkin carving last year. Instead, we enjoyed the pumpkins that Nonnie had carved for us. This year we decided to join in on the fun (OK, actually I decided to join in on the fun & Daddy gave in only because we let him watch football while we carved). We returned to the Fresh Ground Garden Cafe with Daddy & picked out three large pumpkins for carving.

Daddy made a simple face. You helped him design the outline with your markers & then colored in some more just for fun. With the World Series in full swing, I wanted a Boston themed one. I looked for templates online but ended up designing my own Boston Strong pumpkin. We asked you if you wanted to paint or carve yours. You excitedly declared you wanted to carve one, & you wanted it to be Hello Kitty (Daddy & I were recently talking about how surprising it is that Hello Kitty is so popular for little girls. There aren't any Hello Kitty movies or shows that we're aware of. How did she become so freaking popular?!). Unfortunately, you hate everything about carving pumpkins. You don't like the ooey, gooey feeling of gutting the pumpkin, & you're too little to use the sharp carving tools. So, unfortunately YOU carving a pumpkin really means you dance around & bump into Daddy & I while WE carve your pumpkin.

In the end, it was a fun activity we got to share, & we had five wicked fun pumpkin creations (three carved & two painted) & one super sweet little girl.

Plus, we had a ton of pumpkin seeds. I could eat pumpkin seeds for days. So, I guess I kinda love pumpkin after all.

I love you so,

Mommy