If You Go Two Years In A Row, It's A Tradition

And like that, October is gone. I really enjoy the nights getting cooler, the leaves becoming crisp on ground, the curl of smoke coming out of chimneys. Our last few days of October were full of fun. Last year we went to Arata's Pumpkin Farm for the first time. Jackie, Connor, and I returned again this year.

We are responsible, serious adults

Arata's has an amazing hay bale maze. It's different each year.

It's really, really, really big

This year was colosseum-themed.

You can see the minotaur over Connor's shoulder

We went though twice, saving a group of people who had been stuck in there for two hours on our second run-through. Then we headed to the pumpkin patch to picked out our pumpkins. It's a careful selection each year. We want to be sure to choose shapes that best show off what we are going to carve into them.

The next day was pumpkin carving day. My brother joined us this year and the three of us decided on a Futurama theme. It was kind of funny how that came about; Connor and I decided we wanted to do Futurama, so I called up my brother to let him know and it turned out he had independently decided on the same theme. Jackie's pumpkin was going to live at her place, so she decided to break from theme and go with a classic Frankenstein's monster.

I had been really careful with my pumpkin. When you carve words, you want to be sure not to misspell anything. I showed everyone multiple times throughout the process. At the very end, I asked what everyone thought. Jackie and Christopher agreed that it looked really good. Connor gasped and said, "You spelled Plant Express, not Planet Express." I couldn't believe it! Luckily I had enough space on the pumpkin that I was able to turn the T into an E and add a T at the end. Crisis averted.

Left to right: Jackie's Frankeinstein's monster; Christopher's Bender; My Planet Express logo; Connor's Fry

Mum let us know that the pumpkins were admired by the trick-or-treaters who came by their place. It's always fun to carve our pumpkins. We are already discussing what next year's theme could be.

Pumpkin Farm, Haystack Maze, and The Ill Advised Haunted House

I hadn't really been more than 15 minutes from our apartment for nearly a month. My buddy Jackie had asked us way back in May if we wanted to go to her favorite pumpkin patch when the time came. I still wasn't feeling great, but I was also getting a bit stir crazy from being homebound for so long. So two days before Halloween, we drove over to the farm.

I'd never been to a pumpkin farm before, so I wasn't sure what to expect. It turns out that this farm had a bunch of things to do. There was a haunted house... which I got talked into. I'll admit that at the first sign of a spooky person saying they would "come and get" us, I told them that they could have Jackie. There was also a corn maze. When Connor saw that he announced decisively, "I want to do the maze." It was a really good one, too. They had six entrances to get in and more than one worked. There were also false doors, which would influence the correct path to the end.

We made it out alive, which was good, since we still needed to pick out our pumpkins.

Jackie told us that she had always wanted to carve Burt and Ernie from Sesame Street into a pair of pumpkins, but never had. I was all for it, so we searched for the correct Burt and Ernie shaped pumpkins.

Jackie decided she also wanted an Oscar the Grouch pumpkin. Finding the right pumpkin took some serious thought.

We were so tired from all the fun we had that we didn't carve our pumpkins until the next day. We drew our own renditions of each character. I think they came out pretty great. 

Left to right: Oscar the Grouch, Ernie, and Burt

Jackie took her pumpkin home while Connor and I took ours to my parents' house. The trick-or-treaters really got a kick out of our pumpkins. I'm glad Jackie shared her fun idea with us.