After researching various nearby pumpkin spots, I realized what a money-making racket the pumpkin-experience has become. Every place I checked offered a variety of super-fun fall themed activities but all for a price. Hay rides? $3 a person. Corn maze? $5 a pop. Climbing on straw bales, scavenger hunt and leaf-raking? $5 each for an activity wristband (including accompanying adults). And of course that doesn't even include the cost of the pumpkin itself. Ay-ay-ay!
So, instead I found a happy cheaper medium for the pumpkin experience. I knew the kids would really enjoy a tractor-pulled hay wagon ride -- especially my machine-loving boy -- so we spent the $9 to do that. The leaves and rakes were available for raking so we did that for free. There were wagons sitting around for toting pumpkins which functioned as toys for the boys. Add to that a few cups of apple cider, noshing on cheap cookies and wandering around the pumpkins (couldn't bear to buy any as I know my local drugstore sells them much cheaper) and we had ourselves a lovely morning!
I know I'm an uber-cheapskate but I really am glad folks were dishing out so much moola for the pumpkin pandemonium today. Way to support a local farm, people!
Have you visited a pumpkin patch yet this season? If so, I'm curious . . . how much did you pay for your pumpkin?
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| All tuckered out from the pumpkin morning. |
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| My cutesy Chloe posing nicely for the camera. Why don't the boys follow her lead?!? |
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| Rakin' |
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| A rock is truly as much fun as a ball. Just duck when Solomon comes your way. |
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| Who knew raking someone else's leaves could be so enjoyable? |
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| Waiting patiently for the hayride. |
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| Sizing up the tractor wheel. |
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| Hayride! |
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| This boy LOVED all aspects of the hayride! |
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| Wagon pulling and pushing |
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| Pumpkins in a bathtub? What? |
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| The best shot of the three rascals I could get. |
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| Checking out the pumpkin selection. |
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| Balancing on the bridge over a sea of pumpkins. |
3 comments:
I'm cheap too. We visit a pumpkin patch and do all the fun things that are free. Then we take a pumpkin from grandpa's garden for free and go on a hay ride for free from a man at our church or my father in law. Love it!
Kelly: Man, wish I could get a few free pumpkins from your grandpa's garden too! Do you get to roast any pumpkins from his patch?
I don't think I could drag my husband, kicking & screaming to a pumpkin patch :-) And since we don't have any kids to use as leverage we skip the whole deal. But we do sometimes go to a store & buy pumpkins. Last year the two that we bought lasted until spring without getting soft or going bad. We had two pumpkins under our Christmas tree :-) And I don't think you are being cheap. You just don't enjoy waste!
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