The Great Pumpkin

I’m not particularly a fan of fall (I’m more of a spring person), but one thing I do look forward to every year is taking a trip to the pumpkin farm. Willie and I used to take my niece to Schuster’s Playtime Farm when she was younger, and this year we got to take Owen to pick out his first Halloween pumpkin. Aside from helping out a local farming family, I really enjoy going because it’s fairly cheap and a fun way to spend the afternoon.

Owen enjoyed seeing all of the farm animals, including pigs, goats, chickens, donkeys, llamas, and kittens. He also did pretty well on the hayride around the farm on the way to the pumpkin patch (although I think he enjoyed staring at the lady at the end of the hay wagon more than he did the scenery. If you’re reading this, sorry! I know it’s rude to stare.) We ended up picking a medium size pumpkin—the perfect size, because it’s small enough that you don’t have to clean out too much pumpkin guts, but big enough that mommy can get some nice pumpkin seeds to roast and snack on. Next year should be even more fun because he’ll be able to enjoy more of the other activities they have there for kids.

As far as other things concerning Halloween go, we decided not to spend a lot on a costume for Owen since he’s too little to go trick or treating. Instead we bought a little jack-o-lantern onesie and pants and a matching hat with a pumpkin stem on it (for way less than $10), figuring that he could wear pieces of it again.

I’m curious to know if any of you have other tips for being thrifty around Halloween time. What inexpensive activities do you do with your family this time of year?

Comments

[Kari and Darek]

used and home made costumes. The boys costumes in total cost $10.00. Cree needed a Jacket for his so we were off to savers. We do have over 200 trick-o-treaters that come to our house so we have a pretty big candy budget. I did save money on that this year by handing out pretzels..and had a lot of happy parents. We now plant our own pumpkin seeds for free pumpkins in the fall.

Keep up the great work!

[Cassie and Willie]

I just read the play-at-home article for this week, and it looks like it has lots of great tips for this time of year, too!

[Anne Blackburn]

Love reading the entries each week - I am following my cousin, Kari, and her family. The pictures were great! Here are some Fall things that we like to do with our two kiddos (that don't cost a lot of money):
--Find every single park with lots of trees-we even take our rakes. Kids are content and happy while mommy snaps a lot of pics!
--Go and pick your own apples at the orchard-very inexpensive, and entertaining outing.
--leaf rubbing - so simple, yet so fun for my 3 yr. old
--bob for apples - again, so simple and fun for my 3 yr. old and now my 1 yr. can join in the fun!

Happy Fall to you and your family! ~Anne

[Rachel]

Love the pictures! :)

One rule I follow at Halloween:
I never buy candy! It just seems to end up at the house so it is a quick expensive to cut out.