"I'm not making anything" Monday

I'm pretty sure I've thought about this a lot. 

I wanted pumpkins this year.  Even though I am not a fan of Halloween, I want pumpkins because they represent fall. 

Sure, I've had pumpkins in years before.  I've carved them.  I've roasted the seeds.  But this year it was important because they were going to be decorations for our house, and we don't have a lot of decorations since we just bought our house six short months ago. 

In my head, this fall thing is a trial run for Christmas.  If I fail miserably, Christmas might be cancelled. 

(That's what I tell myself to stay motivated.)

So I started shopping around at the grocery stores in my area and found that if I was going to buy a single pumpkin, I was going to pay up to $8 per pumpkin.  With my budget, this dramatically lessened the amount of pumpkins I was going to buy. 

But then, my amazing friend Momma Bug tells me that she and her son (my Godson) are going to head over to the annual Cal Poly Pomona Pumpkin Patch.  This was suddenly perfect, and I'll tell you why:

1. My friend and I met at Cal Poly about 6 or 7 years ago now. 
2. I get to take fall inspired photos of my Godson. 
3. The worst case scenario, I pay about $8 per pumpkin like I would in the stores but at least I'd have a blast with my friend and her son. 

So I put it on the calendar and charged the camera battery, but as a last minute addition, Big Mike joined us!  Even with telling him we were going early to beat the crowds, he woke up early and came with me.  I absolutely love spending time with Big Mike, and I hope that I never, ever, never, ever get sick of it! 

So the four of us headed of to the pumpkin patch on Saturday morning.  We were certainly not the first people there, but I am so glad we headed out early! 

I chased the little dude around for about an hour with my Nikon and after he had successfully navigated the pupkin patch and stopped in at the petting zoo (which was a steal at only $1 per person!). 

At that point, Big Mike and I said our goodbyes and went off to search for our perfect pumpkins.  Like I said, I had thought I lot about this and decided that this year I wouldn't be carving a pupkin.  It was messy, I was never any good, and I am not even sure our association would let us keep it outside our front door. 

But Big Mike wanted to carve a pumpkin.  You read that right, I wanted small, decorative pumpkins.  He wanted a big fat one with a large face to carve.  Did I object?  No way! 

So he found his large carving pumpkin, I picked up a mid size orange pumpkin, a smaller yellow and green pumpkin, as well as a little baby pumpkin and we headed to the exit to pay. 

"That'll be $10 please." 

I was shocked!  Four pumpkins for only $10!?!  Now I know why all these people head to the Cal Poly Pumpkin Patch every year!  It's free to park.  It's free to come inside.  They have an optional pancake breakfast.  There is a cheap petting zoo.  There are lots of other vendors there and things to buy.  They stage hay bales and photo opportunities all over the patch.  And the greatest thing of all, the pumpkins are reasonably priced.  Mike's large pumpkin was $6, my mid size was $2, and the two little ones were only $1. 

This is definitely going to be a new tradition for me!  I can't wait to go again next year! 

Here's a few shots from our new tradition:

What's your fall tradition?  Next up, I'm going to test out some fall recipes that I've been hearing so much about!