punkin feztible

i am so happy that fall has arrived and in full force on this cold, rainy saturday. i love a good stay-in-the-house-cozied-up kind of day but i found myself longing for the outdoor fun we had last weekend at The Four Mile Historic Park Pumpkin Festival—or as marianne says "punkin feztible." we met up with our friends, the andersons, while we were there and the girls (marianne and maryn) had a blast. it was such a great little festival—free admission and both free/very inexpensive fun activities for the kids, plus most of the festival-workers were dressed in wild frontier period costume. we panned for gold; spun wool yarn; played tug-o-war; ate apple cider donuts, hot snicker-doodles and kettle corn; explored the pumpkin patch; rode the horse-drawn covered wagon; and although we passed on making a life-sized scarecrow marianne enjoyed filling her own pants with straw while climbing and clambering all over the hay bales.

panning for gold...marianne preferred throwing rocks in her pan and
then dunking them into the water as opposed to panning silt from the
trough. maryn, however, scored several gold nuggets for her efforts.

there was a huge play yard with several games like wooden stick horses,
stilts, and tug-o-war. the girls pulled each other all over the yard...
giggling the whole way.

marianne was desperate to find a small pumpkin that she could actually
pick up on her own. we scoured the entire patch a few times over with
no success. she was so focused that she refused/ignored my requests to
let me get a picture of her actually looking at the camera.

she tried...but it was too heavy!

from the moment we arrived, marianne saw the wagons and begged the
entire time to ride! at $3 for the both of us...who could refuse. i was
thinking of grandpa george the entire time.

it looks like she's miserable but i assure you she had a blast...but to my
complete frustration she rarely obliges my request to smile for the
camera (much like her daddy).

as you might be able to tell from marianne's rosy cheeks, it was a little too warm to be ideal fall festival weather but it got both of us extremely excited for fall and halloween. i broke out my handful of halloween decorations yesterday and we've been working on some handmade paper decorations to transform this home into a haunt!