Pumpkins Are Everything

I believe I've mentioned that I am a summer girl who is crushing on fall this year. Even though the love of this season is new to me, I have always been a huge pumpkin lover. 

Forrest Gump. If that movie is on I will be watching it.

Anyway, I'm the one in Dunkin Donuts asking for a pumpkin latte well into the winter, until the barista sadly tells me they don't make them anymore. I stock up on pumpkin scented candles for the year, and bake as many pumpkin goodies as I can. The three main ingredients in any dessert on my Pinterest board is always either peanut butter, blueberries, or pumpkin. So it's a good time of year for me to try out some new recipes.

A few years ago we painted pumpkins at a farm and Moshe had so much fun doing it that it's become a fall tradition for us. 

I took the kids to a local county fair yesterday. It was another perfect fall day, and face painting, pony rides, and a pumpkin patch, rounded out the perfectness. Lily took picking out a pumpkin very seriously. 

The pumpkin patch had tables with paint set out, but Moshe wanted to paint ours at home. 

I put out a lot of newspaper on my living room floor and let my little artists get to work. I made a big initial out of painters tape on each of the pumpkins so they would have a fun monogrammed pumpkin when they were done painting. 

^^^no clothes for those under two is always a good idea

I learned a few things having two kids painting this year. It's going to be insanely messy, the less water you have in the bowl to rinse out the brushes, the better, and there's not really going to be any time for mama to paint her pumpkin if she's trying to make sure the kids don't go all Jackson Pollock on the living room.

After the pumpkins dried and I pulled off the painters tape, this is what we ended up with. 

 

Lily got bored well before she had painted enough to cover the area around the painters tape but if you squint you can make out the L on her pumpkin.

After I cleaned up the mess my kids made, I colored on my funny shaped pumpkin (thank you Moshe for finding it for me) with a sharpie. I tried for a preppy pumpkin in navy and green with a modern monogram, and chevron design. I still love chevron, but it's going to be deader than dead in 2014, so I had one last chevron hurrah with my little pumpkin.

Our three little pumpkins all in a row by our front door definitely make me happy and more in love with fall.

What was everyone up to over this gorgeous weekend? Anyone paint some pumpkins? Even better, anyone bake some pumpkiny goodness? Send some my way if you did!