Burt's Farm

And so we journeyed to Burt's Farm.

We arrived at about 3:0opm, and the place was packed. Totally packed. People everywhere grabbing pumpkins of all shapes and sizes.

But the crowd did not deter my Jim. The guy was SO excited as we parked and unloaded the girls. He was adorable . . . thrilled at the idea of taking home at least one giant pumpkin.

"I want to spend at least $100 on these pumpkins," said Jim.

"What?!" and a big laugh was my response. I was so happy to see Jim so excited about our family adventure. He couldn't grab his wheelbarrow fast enough. His eyes were all sparkly, he was down right giddy. I haven't seen him that happy since we were trying so dang hard to get pregnant with Kate :)

I mentioned before that we headed to Burt's Farm without first having lunch . . . and, while both girls did snooze soundly in the back of the car for most of the ride, they eventually both woke up and expected to eat before we arrived. So, Kate was fed . . . but poor Meg had to settle for some concessions on the farm. Her lunch included nachos with cheese and some pumpkin bread. And, might I add, there were no complaints on her end. (Amidst all this fun, I still couldn't help thinking what a bad mom I was for not feeding my kid a decent lunch!)

Both kids (and parents) fed, it was finally picture time.

A crowd literally gathered around while we took Kate's pictures. People laughed and pointed at the girls as they attempted to sit together for a few quick pics. It was a scene, I tell you.

I took 446 pictures yesterday, between the trip to Pettit Creek and Burt's Farm.

And, between taking so many pictures, we did manage to pick out one luxuriously large pumpkin. The thing is freakin' huge . . . Jim had to have help to get it in to the car. We also left with about 6 other pumpkins of various size and color. Meg kept putting them in the wheelbarrow, and Jim kept encouraging her to pick out more. It was delightful to watch them work together, no doubt. And with our pumpkins packed, we loaded up the girls and headed for home. Meg was elated to hold her own, "yittle punkin" on her lap the whole ride home.

Jim asked, "Is that what you wanted?" as we drove away.

I sighed. "Yes," I said, and I snuggled into my seat and began to look at the pictures in my camera.

The Epilogue . . .

After departing, we went south (toward home) and ate dinner at Dreamland BBQ in Alpharetta. The funny part . . . we saw three families we had run into at the pumpkin patch. Not people we actually know, just other families with kids with whom we'd had some small talk. Funny. I guess that a whole gaggle of pumpkins makes everyone crave barbecue. :)

The only negative, as I look back at our glorious afternoon in north Georgia . . . the time of day we visited. If I had been planning better, we would never EVER have gone there mid afternoon.

Reasons:

(a) the light is awful. simply, purely, terribly awful. If you ever wanted to know why I like to shoot so early in the morning, these pictures will tell you the tale. Mid day, full sun . . . ugh. I've done the best I can with many of these images, but some won't ever be 'great' because of the blasting sun or overwhelming shade. Oh well. You live, you learn (or, in this case, I knew better . . . but I took what I could get).

(b) it was very crowded. Not only does that make for precarious pumpkin picking, but it also makes it hard to get a decent picture without 50 random strangers in your background. We left around 4:00-4:30pm, and the crowd was much more manageable at that time of day. Burt's is open until 6pm. We'll hit there a bit later in the day next year.

Also, I'll be sure to let our girls eat and sleep properly before we try it again. Poor darlings. I got soooo many sour-puss faces from Meg when trying to take pictures. Not her fault, though. She had a great time in spite of her hunger, but a little elevation in the blood sugar might have worked wonders for her smile.