Pumpkins, Ghosts and Heatstroke

The weather here in Los Angeles has been far from what one would call "Autumnal", but despite the surface-of-the-sun temperatures, we're getting in the Halloween spirit.

Prior to having children I would have enjoyed this last gasp of summer the way any person unencumbered by kids would: sunbathing, sipping tropical cocktails, and doing nothing.  Unfortunately, toddlers don't really understand the concept of "doing nothing", which is how I ended up at a pumpkin patch during a heatwave.  It turns out that no matter how many times you explain to children that it's too hot to carve pumpkins because they will rot, they simply don't care.

As soon as your kid sees that first Halloween decoration in the neighborhood, visions of Tootsie Rolls and fun size Mars Bars will begin dancing through his or her head and before you know it you will find yourself standing ankle deep in dirty hay, sweating profusely, and attempting to muster up some excitement for choosing the perfect pumpkin.

Originally, we had grand plans to drive out to Underwood Family Farms and hit up their pumpkin patch and Harvest festival.  It sounds great - a real farm, lots of seasonal, Halloween-y activities - but when the temperature hit almost 90 degrees before 9AM and the Muffin Man would not be dissuaded from a pumpkin patch outing, we decided to keep it more local and head south to Cottone and Sons instead.  You know what?  It was great.  Sure, it wasn't as picturesque as tromping through endless fields of fresh-from-the-vine pumpkins, but there were shade covers and it was definitely more festive than picking up a few gourds from Trader Joe's.

I'm pretty sure they checked out every. single. pumpkin.

Not sold on the baby goats.

Pony rides, on the other hand, looked thrilling. 

Rose had a wonderful time reorganizing the merchandise displays.

Just ogling the hot witch, as guys do.

All in all, the pumpkin outing was surprisingly successful.  It's very possible that I'm still suffering the after effects of heat stroke, but I think that this definitely qualifies us for some sort of "parents of the year trophy".  Also, my kids were so worn out from all the sun and activity that they napped for three hours which made all that perspiration worthwhile.