It's pumpkin time!

It's that time of the year again, fall is in the air and everywhere you look there's pumpkins and gourds and apple butter. It makes me smile....truly smile and thank the Lord for it all.

We headed back to the Tolmachoff Farms just like we did last year, for pumpkins and the petting zoo and the corn maze......and for all the amazing preserves and syrups, like the Toasted Pecan and the Blackberry Syrup that makes pancakes that much more special.

The minute I see that jar of Apple Butter and Pumpkin Butter, I start imagining warm homemade bread slathered with these butters, nothing says Fall like it.

Fair warning, this is a photo heavy post, but I just have to show you all the pictures I took this morning, so sit back and enjoy. BTW, you can see the rest of the pics here.

Jasmine loved this donkey.....

Nicholas? Not so much....this is what happens when you know how to read, he saw the sign "Animals may bite" and that was it...he didn't want to get too close LOL

How adorable is this pig?

I love corn, I love the taste, I love the color, the texture....everything about it.

Time for the corn maze....we were stuck there for over an hour and eventually just gave up and asked for the way out LOL

Corn mazes are NOT that fun when you're out there in 102 degree weather. That's right.....102 degrees, how ridiculous is that?

I wanted so badly to bring these little ones home with me, my goodness they are adorable.

Why is it that this sight makes me deliriously happy?

My poor kids get so red when they're out in the heat.

It was a fun morning, but way too hot and by the time we paid for the pumpkins and got in the truck, we were just ready to come home to an air conditioned house.

While everyone relaxed, I threw together a big pot of soup, it doesn't matter that it's hot outside, nights are starting to cool down and there is absolutely nothing like a bowl of hot soup brimming with veggies right?

Go on over to Full Bellies, Happy Kids and get the recipe for yourself, it's super easy to make and so so good.

Have you been to your local farm yet? Have you picked your pumpkins?

Here's another question, do you buy pumpkins just for carving or do you also roast them and make pie and soup and toasted seeds?

Welcome to Pumpkin Land!!!

Let me tell you right now, if you don't like pumpkins, I suggest you move along because I'm surrounded by them, literally.

Yesterday we finally made it to the Pumpkin Patch, remember we had wanted to a while ago but they were closed and then hubby was gone for a while, so we figured we better get on out there with Halloween being only 2 days away.

We had a GREAT time, we spent the day going on hayrides, finding our way through the corn maze and searching for the perfect pumpkins. By the time we got into the truck and headed home we were exhausted but happy.

So come on in and sit with me, I have some Pumpkin Pie Spice Coffee. Remember the other day I tried cinnamon and then yesterday some chocolate??? Well I just tried putting about 2 teaspoons of Pumpkin Pie Spice and OH.MY.GOODNESS, it's wonderful, it's like drinking pumpkin pie.....well put that way it sounds kinda gross, but trust me it's really good.

Go ahead and take a seat on one of the bales of hay, I thought it would be a perfect setting for all the pictures I want to show you.


So the first thing we did was go on the hayride, the kids were so excited to go and had a great time, you can see by their expressions.

See those pumpkins??? Those were just the big ones we got, at this point we hadn't made it to the small ones or the squash.

After we left the hayride we got the pumpkins paid for and loaded in the truck, but then it was time to go to the Corn Maze. We had a lot of fun, we were supposed to find 4 checkpoints, but we only found 1 LOL
We did see the other one right across from the corn, but we couldn't go through it, how unfair is that? LOL

Here are the pictures from the corn maze.

Nicholas did NOT enjoy the maze at all, he kept saying "this is not fun for me, I want to go home, we have to find our way out, I want to go home and play with my toys" LOL
It was hilarious seeing the faces he was pulling!!!

After the maze which took FOREVER, we found the way out and the kids insisted on the Cow Train Ride, of course since parents were going on it too, I had to go.....Curt declined the offer LOL He stood out and took pictures.....and we're off:

While we were waiting for Curt to get the tickets to that awesome ride up there (I felt like an overgrown kid on the wrong ride LOL), the kids went on the little straw maze and of course when I tell them to pose for a picture, I get a tongue sticking out....typical LOL

Here's some pictures of the pumpkins, aren't they just the prettiest things???

And that was the end of our day at the pumpkin patch, but of course we couldn't just walk past "these two" things....we would have been in major trouble :)

And with one last look at the beautiful pumpkins we were on our way home.

When we arrived I decided to grab a quick picture before the carving began, we were all antsy to get in there and get cutting into them...

We got all of those pumpkins for about $25, now tell me that is not a steal???

So we set to work, and this is the final result, I took a picture of them all together and then each individual one. Now if I just remember to post them at Theresa's Blog-O-Lantern Contest.

And with that my friends, I'm done....I think I've kept you here long enough and I'm sure by now your coffees are all cold, mine is. Hope you enjoyed the pictures....I'm off to start dinner and no I didn't forget about the Ravioli Lasagna Recipe, I'll be posting it on my food blog soon.

Have a great sunday, and I hope you remembered to turn back your clocks, hubby and I forgot this morning and when we went by Burger King we were very annoyed that they were almost an hour past time to open, little did we know that WE were the ones in the wrong LOL

See you all tomorrow, I'll be posting some pics of our front yard decorated for Halloween.