The Great Pumpkin Patch

Today Greg and I did our favorite fall activity--we went to the Great Pumpkin Patch in Arthur, Illinois! This fun tradition began in 2007 when Mom and I first discovered the Pumpkin Patch while I was going to graduate school. She and I loved it! Greg and I didn't make it to the patch in 2008 because that was when we were getting married, but we have gone in 2009 and 2010. It is such a fun, fallish place. The weather was a little gray and rainy today, but it felt like fall, and we basically had the whole place to ourselves, so that was nice.

Here is something they have not had before--the Great Pumpkin Patch version of American Gothic. I have named this picture "Pumpkin Gothic."







Here is the Wall of Squash. Now that is a lot of squash!








And here is the pumpkin patch. Look how misty and fall-like it looks! We also saw a lot of cute baby animals and pumpkin displays.






Here we are picking out our pumpkins.

















And here is the result of our pumpkin/squash picking. I think Big Spike approves. What a fun day we had! While we were in Arthur, we stopped at the Homestead Bakery at the Great Pumpkin Patch where we stocked up on all of our fall necessities: delicious jams, pumpkin bread, pumpkin cookies, and fresh apple cider. And we, of course, stopped in Tuscola at our FAVORITE place to eat: Flesor's Candy Kitchen, home of the most delicious Reuben sandwich in the entire world. What a fun, fall day!