It's the Great Pumpkin, Seamus Fionn!

There is nothing like the beginning of the Fall season.  I just love it.  Gorgeous changing leaves, crisp autumn air, the anticipation of the holidays ahead.  There is such a wonderful energy about Fall, isn't there?

Also, the food.  Love it.  I don't know about you, but I start to get that itch to make soup, soup, and more SOUP!  As I type this, I just finished making a grocery list with the ingredients for my favorite pumpkin soup recipe for next week.  And we are making brisket chili tomorrow for Football Sunday (I'm trying to embrace this whole Football Sunday idea, but it's still a struggle.  Soup helps.).  Seriously, in the Fall, if it isn't hot, steamy, and eaten with a spoon and some crusty bread...I'm just not interested!  Conor starts to pull back the reins on my soup addiction after a few weeks once our freezer starts to get overloaded but until then...it's All Soup...All the Time!  Hehe.

Okay, but enough about soup.  Let's talk about all the fun activities one can enjoy in the Fall.  For instance, we took Fionn to his first pumpkin patch last weekend, a little place called Cox Farms.  

I must start by saying that the term "pumpkin patch" is wholly inadequate to describe this mecca of Fall entertainment.  Cox Farms is basically like a pumpkin patch on a hearty dose of steroids.  There are slides galore, goats, hayrides, bluegrass music, a corn maize...did I mention the goats?  Fionny loved himself some goats. 

Hey Mr. Goat...Come here often?

Fionn feeding the goats.  Loving it!

Yes, yes, the goats were indeed a hit.  I loved hearing Fionn's giggle as the goats nibbled the food out of his little palm. Fionn's giggle, for those of you who haven't heard it, sounds like he's on helium.  It's pretty infectious.  Definitely beats his impatient shrieking which is still getting way too much play these days.

After the goats, it was time to SLIDE!  Wheeeeeeee!

Next stop?  BUBBLES!  Boy oh boy!  One of Fionn's new words this month is "bubble," and I think you'll see why.  Cox Farms had this amazing bubble maker that spit out enormous amounts of bubbles so the kids could run around in them.  Conor grumbled that some lady kept getting in the way of his "shot" (such a diva, this one), but he did manage to get this one picture.  And I think it's a keeper.

Goats, slides, bubbles...Whatevs, says Fionn.  The biggest hit of the day was by far the train cars.  Fionn is developing a pretty significant obsession with trains these days.  He would spend hours on the train at the playground that we frequent if I let him.  And he loves to say "choo-choo!"  So as soon as he saw the brightly colored train cars at Cox Farms, we were done.  The rest of the day was spent climbing up and down off the train.  Up.  Down.  Up.  Down.  Oh yeah.  He sat at the little table inside one of the train cars a few times too.  Just to mix things up a bit.  Here is Conductor Fionn, manning his machine.

Okay, this next picture just cracks me up.  If Fionn was having a smoke along with his sippy of water, this picture could be straight out of a James Dean movie.  We'll call this one Toddler Without A Cause.

You'll notice there are no picture of pumpkins in this blog post about a pumpkin patch adventure.  An oversight really.  We did leave with 3 pumpkins (one for each of us), but picking out the pumpkins was about the least exciting part of the day.  So it didn't get a whole lotta camera time.

But never fear!  I have unearthed a vintage picture of Fionn from our Vermont adventure which was just about 1 year ago now.  As far as pictures of The Great Pumpkin go, this should suffice.

Wow, what a difference a year makes, huh?  Until next time, folks.