Silly Mom Thoughts

As I mentioned in my Recession = Lame blog, we’re cutting back every way we can. It has been more than a little tough giving up fun things and saying “No” to parties and nights out, but I think we’ll be glad we did once we see our bank account increasing again. Despite all of these sacrifices, there was one thing that I refused to miss out on this year: the pumpkin patch.

We have visited a pumpkin patch every year since Bug could walk, and some of my favorite pictures come from our pumpkin patch visits. There is nothing like those vibrant oranges and reds set against a beautiful blue sky (no, it doesn’t always rain in Seattle). This year, we decided to do the pumpkin patch, but do it extra frugal. Here’s how it went:

We showed up at the pumpkin patch and saw that we had to pay for everything, even the hay ride around the patch (jerks), so we walked around. (Well we walked. Bug ran, like any toddler boy would.)

 We took the traditional pumpkin patch pictures, like Mommy and Bean (notice her super cute Squeaky Shoes):

Bean sitting on lots of pumpkins:

And the ever-cheesy, but oh-so endearing, Turk and Bug walking hand-in-hand:

And then we left. No pumpkins, no cider, no kettle corn. Such sadness. But it was all too expensive!

All hope was not lost, however…

We hit jackpot at the Poor Kids’ Pumpkin Patch:

Yep, the local grocery store. We got a ginormous pumpkin for less than $7, people! Now, I’m all for supporting local farmers, but right now we have to look out for ourselves. Plus, these pumpkins probably came from somewhere nearby, right?

We saved so much money, we splurged on Italian sausage for our spaghetti dinner and pumpkin pie filling to make some nummy pie. The kids even got free cookies at the bakery.

We’re cheap and dang proud of it.

And we found out that Bug’s hat fit on Turk’s head:

All-in-all, a great day!