We ♥ Hawk's

Hawk's Pumpkin Patch has been a staple of our fall festivities since we moved to Winston-Salem. Most of the year it's just a wide stretch of empty lawn, but at the beginning of October it starts to fill up with, well... I guess Fall festivity. :)

There's a large shelter filled with apples, gourds, and cider. The lawn is dotted with hundreds upon hundreds of pumpkins in all shapes, sizes, and colors--all set up in gridded squares that stretch from the parking lot to a field of high, golden grass. And they bring in all kinds of good stuff for photo ops, too. Huge wagons (huge!), little red Radio Flyers, lean-tos corn covered in rustic corn husks and grasses, a little tee-pee, and of course some hay bales and gigantic pumpkins to prop your kids up on.

(No promises that they will all smile at the same time, though.)

Last Monday we drove down Clemmonsville and turned the kids loose to explore.

Juliette was immediately enamored of several baby pumpkins, and did some loops carrying them around. After weeks of driving by Hawk's (always with exclamations of "PUMPKINS!!!" from one or all of the back-seat-drivers) she was thrilled to be able to touch them for herself.

She was also pretty excited to get to roam free, untethered by parental hand-holding and unhindered by attentive siblings (who were too busy having their own fun to chase her around).

Something about the rows between the pumpkins really shouted "RUN!!!" to the kiddos for some reason, so they did. They spent a good five or ten minutes just running laps through the pumpkin grid.

And Gracie brought me a dandelion.

My heart feels happy when they bring me flowers. I remember doing that for my mama. I don't know where that little tradition came from, because I never taught them to do it, but I love it. I love that I am the person in their life who gets brought flowers. I can't really explain the exact why. Just that they see something beautiful, and they want to give it to me. It's one of those heart-overflowing things that takes you by surprise.

Kind of like this doodle I noticed on the back of Gracie's sketchbook:

She thought she might like to draw some things at the pumpkin patch, so she brought along paper and pencil to keep track of the important things she saw.

She's getting so grown up that my heart does a little backflip every time I look at her out and about in the world like this. I can't seem to begin expecting to see a seven-year-old instead of the little toddler who always wanted me to lift her up to watch water running into the washing machine. Luckily at seven she is still full of magic and thoughtfulness and giggles.

They're buddies.

And speaking of buddies, Gracie took some pictures of me with my BFF, too. ;)

After the running and the photo ops among squashes and on big wagons, we grabbed a Radio Flyer to haul our chosen pumpkins around in. But it turned out everybody needed rides first. :)

There was much rejoicing and only a few instances where it looked like the whole kit and caboodle were going to topple out. (They didn't.) All in all a successful venture (and Gracie got a very good workout hauling her sibs around!).

We all took the business of pumpkin-choosing very seriously, deliberating one by one until the wagon was full. It's kind of a big deal, so it's worth it to really take your time. You have to find your spirit-pumpkin, because you only get one a year.

Gotta make it count.