the great pumpkin harvest

We couldn't wait any longer, so last week we picked most of our pumpkins. I guess they're ready when all the vines start to wither and they were. Plus we are going out of town for a couple of weeks in October and I wanted to enjoy them before I go! I love these cinderella pumpkins!!! They get so orange! I first saw them a couple of years ago in San Francisco.

I can't tell you how much the boys love growing pumpkins! They grow so fast that they are really fun to watch and check everyday. We gave the pumpkins free reign in half of our backyard flowerbed. The other day my mom was over and said, "You know, it would be better to buy your pumpkins since they are so cheap and take up so much room. Then you could grow other more expensive vegetables..." But I can't do it. They are too much fun!

This one grew up into our tomato cage. At least the tomato plant was good for something as you can see it only gave me a few GREEEN tomatoes!!!!

Above you can see our side flowerbed that we planted little mini pumpkins in. I mixed up the starts and a cinderella pumpkin grew in this patch too. If I had a big yard I would dedicate a lot of room to make a pumpkin patch and let the neighbor kids come and choose one for a dollar. Sigh.

Our collection so far.

My neighbor saw me taking pictures and came to take one with me in it. I guess I am the one who helped the boys put the seeds in starter cups a few months back, and reminded them to water them, and watered them when they wouldn't and transplanted them into the garden. Yep- I'm glad I'm in the pic. My real babies and my summer pumpkin babies. :)

We also decorated inside for Halloween. And Ollie wanted to listen to Christmas music while we did it. It was actually lots of fun- a memory I always want to keep- my little boys so excited, showing me all the scary spiders and skeletons with Christmas playing in the background.