You know the quote from the book Anne of Green Gables that’s splashed around social media every year around this time, with a picturesque pumpkin-speckled landscape in the background: “I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.” Yes! October is the best month!
Every mid-September my husband starts teasing me about how I will soon be on my way to ‘Pumpkintown.’ This just means I will start to crave all things pumpkin. I want to smell it (cozy fall candles, cinnamon-y essential oils, yay!), I want to taste it (pumpkin coffee! pumpkin muffins! pumpkin butter!), I want to see it (fall decor in every corner of our house!). I bought my first pumpkin of the year the other day. It’s a beauty: it’s speckled both sage and the prettiest light orange colors. Pumpkins didn’t used to be this pretty when we were kids, did they?! There are so many varieties now. Big, lumpy, bumpy, and all different colors. And I LOVE them all.
I try to fit in as many pumpkin patches as we can possibly visit in one short month. I want to take every hayride, get lost in every corn maze, pet every horse, and watch my kids traipse across every pumpkin patch at sunset (Extra credit points if the pumpkins are still on the vine! Or if we spot the sometimes elusive yellow flower that signals that the fruit is about to grow – aren’t pumpkins magical!).
Our favorite local patches are Jack ‘O Lantern Lane, Farmer in the Dell and a little bit up the road, Dream Field Farms. A little bit further away, we’ve also made a trip to the Rock Ranch. And when we’ve visited my parents in Huntsville, we enjoyed Tate Farms – I’m talking silos, rows of cotton, giant play structures, and a little pumpkin house that were all a feast for the eyes. This year I’m adding Stone Mountain to our list. They have a fall festival happening until November 3rd that looks so fun and pumpkin-filled!
Another favorite annual October tradition is the Lee County Fair! The carnival lights are the perfect backdrop for pictures. I love to get a picture of my kids with the ferris wheel in the background. If you go on the first night, October 1st, there is free admission if you arrive within a certain time frame (4:00 – 6:00 pm). There are plenty of rides and activities for all ages. For a couple of years now, my girls have entered the kids’ cookie baking contest and have won bragging rights along with first-place ribbons.
When Halloween hits and my kids finally get to wear the costumes they’ve looked forward to all month and they get to load up on all the sugar and candy they don’t typically get… I feel completely fulfilled. Any trace of sadness left by the fact that it’s all over again is replaced by the excitement of all the traditions that November and December will also bring…
