In the small town of Montague there is an exceptionally large hill, which was newly repaved, just right for rolling things down like, oh say, pumpkins. Come to think of it I wonder what other things I could have brought along to try my hand at rolling down the mighty hill... hmmm - I'll have to make a game plan for next year.
This incredibly steep hill, especially if you are hauling a cumbersome plastic wagon filled with all of the things your children refuse to carry, is blocked off from traffic {duh!} and numerous hay bales create a pumpkin barrier at the bottom.
Hundreds of kids, no joke, smoosh together in the street at the top of the hill waiting for their age group to be called. Lilly was in the 0-3 year old group, of which there were the most contestants by far. Do you wonder if there are any 0 year olds there, rolling pumpkins, on a freezing October day... yeah, I don't think so either- a bit of overkill Pumpkinfest Committee, just a bit.
The kids go in heats of about 25 or so kids and when the lady yells "GO!" the tykes shove their pumpkin down the hill as hard as their chubby little hands will allow.
It is at this point that each and every adult with their 0-3 yr old ignores the good advice the "GO!" lady gave them just moments before the start, that being "wait a minute before following your pumpkin so they all have time to clear."
So, since my view was obstructed with every adult rear-end that just knew the "GO!" lady certainly didn't mean them, I decided to listen and just waited.
Many of the uber intelligent adults who ran ahead, I was happy to see, ended up getting nailed by a pumpkin or two on the way down. Karma, perhaps?
So we started walking down the hill, trying to see the number on Lilly's pumpkin to free it from the curb if need be...
As we walked down the hill we heard over the garbled loud speaker the winning pumpkin number being called that soundly incredibly close to the one written on my little Lilly's oddly flat pumpkin. Certain that I was hearing it wrong we continued to take our time down the hill. Her pumpkin was so "un-round" that I just knew it would not do well.
If only I had taken a moment to picture a car tire in my mind... not incredibly round are they? Instead they could be considered flat on two sides, much like the pumpkin Lil' picked. She is a genius, she had a pumpkin wheel! Wouldn't you know...???
She won her heat and received a cute button with a pride-inducing blue ribbon attached!
Back up the hill we waited in the crowd for the 7-12 age group and the boys gave it a go. While both claim to have come in second there is really no way to know. The pumpkins fly down the hill and the smaller and flatter they are the better they do. The curb looked like a Nascar race, with pumpkins zooming past, all vying for the front spot.
It was a fun day at this neat little festival. The boys tried pumpkin seed spitting,
face painting,
and pumpkin painting.
I would like to take a moment to mention that the pumpkin roll pumpkin cost $1 each and yet the painting pumpkins were free... if only we had done it in reverse order we could have shoved the FREE ones down the hill.
Nathan and Topher both painted eyes on theirs so it would have looked like severed heads racing down the street - hmmm, we could have awarded 1 point for every 0 yr old who cried. Next year, next year.
We will definitely be making a trip to Pumpkinfest again!
Visit Carin at Forever in Blue Jeans to see lots of Mom's up to the same monkey business.
******************52 Weeks********************52 Weeks is a year long challenge for YOU to be in a picture once a week for 52 weeks. We are always the ones behind the camera, this is YOUR chance to get out in front and be in the pictures with our family. We are glad you are joining this challenge. More importantly your family will really enjoy having you in the picture. Thanks for playing along! Oh, you can just jump in now with 1 of 52, you're not getting off that easy! Now go take a picture!
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