fun at the fest

We attended our town's annual Pumpkinfest on Saturday, Oct. 3rd. It was our 8th year going, but the first time that we didn't have beautiful weather for the festivities. It was chilly and windy all day, and had rained quite a bit the night before, so *everything* was wet. Luckily, the sun came out for awhile in the morning, and we were able to do some of our favorite activities. (The kids and I were disappointed that there was not a pumpkin decorating contest this year ~ we've always had so much fun coming up with new ideas and decorating our pumpkins. However, I'm sure that the people who didn't realize there wasn't a contest this year, and who worked hard on some very creative pumpkins, were even more disappointed!)

The kids ran around the playground first, and then we went to look at all the pumpkins and other fall produce:

At 11am, it was time for the Kiddie Run. Nick's age group ran first. (All you can see of him in this picture is his foot... he was in the back when they first started out.):
Here he is at the halfway point. The 9-12 year olds ran a mile. The last couple of years, Nick has won 2nd or 3rd place for the boys. This year, he did not win a medal, but he was still in the top 1/3 of the runners, and he kept up a great pace the whole way. We were so proud of him!
Later on, it was time for Benjamin's race. The 3 and 4 year olds ran 1/4 of a mile. Ben is 5th from the right here, with the blue hoodie:
Aaaaand they're off!:
Benjamin did a great job and we were proud of him, too! He also finished in the top 1/3, though did not win a medal. (He might have, if he hadn't fallen down at the beginning of the race!) I was having a hard time keeping up with him, to take pictures, and ended up with several blurry ones like this, LOL:
Here's our little runner with the pumpkin he received for participating in the race:
We all ate some lunch and then it was time for Emm and Nick's favorite contest, the pumpkin pie eating contest! Here is Nick, waiting for his round to start:
Those other kids didn't stand a chance, LOL! Notice how the rest of them all have most of their slice still on their plates, and you can't even see Nick's pie:
Nick easily won 1st place! Afterwards he said, "I'm pretty sure I have whipped cream in my lungs now." LOL:
Emmalie also won 1st place in her age group! She did not have much competition, however... only her friend Tori (to Emm's right in this picture), who didn't really want to be in the contest in the first place, and a boy who had accidentally participated in the wrong age group right before this contest, so he'd already had one slice of pie. (I'm confident that Emm would've won even if she'd had more competition, though!) Oh, and Nick isn't really pushing Emm's face into the pie in this picture, LOL. He's just holding her hair back for her:
I participated in the pie eating contest, too, but there's no way I could compete with all the big burly men who were also in it, LOL! I still had fun, and the pie was quite yummy! :)

Next we went over to the petting zoo, where Nick fed several of the animals (and petted all of them, I think!):
There was a new event this year, which turned out to be Ben's favorite activity of the day... pumpkin bowling! He knocked all the pins down, and won some candy for his efforts:
Emmalie had fun bowling, too:
Around 1:30pm, it started sprinkling, so we retreated into the barn and the kids had a great time painting pumpkins:
After that, we headed to the one room schoolhouse. Ben enjoyed drawing on a chalkboard:
And Emmalie and Tori entered the spelling bee contest. Emm won 2nd place for her age group:

While the spelling bee was going on, the sprinkling turned into a real rain shower, and all of the other Pumpkinfest events were cancelled. :( The kids were especially disappointed that there wasn't a Penny in the Haystack game this year ~ they always enjoy searching for coins and candy!

We are already looking forward to next year's Pumpkinfest! (Hopefully, the weather will be much better next time!)