On Saturday we went to Smithome Farms to pick out pumpkins and try-out their corn maze. It was one of our first cold and windy days and we came late enough in the season that the corn has all dried out. The hills are still covered in shades of gold, red, and orange and the sky was gray but luckily not threatening rain.

We payed for the corn maze and looked forward to getting out of the wind. We were given a map and puzzle to complete using clues from 9 stations on this 3 acre maze. The theme was Superman and we eventually found all 9 stations, no thanks to me.  I got us turned around at least twice. Luke apparently liked to see me struggle (yes he gave the map to the dyslexic). After finding all of our stations, Luke suggested trying to make it through the maze from the beginning without the map . I gave him the -I’m done stare, he laughed and we headed for the exit.

From the exit we went straight into the pumpkin patch, well what was left of it. Because of the many sunny days the main patch area looked more like a dusty dirt road with some misshapen and flat sided rotting squash scattered randomly across it. We passed by the dry dirt for a smaller patch father back that looked to be still green. Here we split up to search for some good carving pumpkins.

After getting  muddy boots and dirt covered jeans we looked at our collection and sized them up so we knew how much they would cost.  We carried our pumpkins to the front, bought them at the main entrance, then carried them to the car. Warming up with some coffee we took a nice drive along the river, had dinner out, then headed home.

Once home we devised our carving plan. Choosing a theme of : Star Wars (yes were are nerds if you didn’t already know). We picked our patterns online and got to work. Luke skillfully carved the key logo and poked holes around it to make the stars. I stenciled and cut out the rebel alliance symbol into a smaller pumpkin. I collected seeds to roast later then we decided to finish the job the next day.

On Sunday with our largest pumpkin we prepped and turned it into an outer-space dogfight scene with a tye-fighter and x-wing in it among the stars. On our final white pumpkin went the evil empire sign. For halloween we plan to use glow sticks to light up our front porch pumpkins. (More pictures of these to come). We hope those little  (or not so little) star wars fan trick or treat-ors will appreciate them.

How about you? Have you taken the time for a good fall outing? What do you like to do with you picked pumpkins?