Pumpkins!

Julia had her first school field trip ever yesterday, and man, was she excited.  SO excited, in fact, that she felt that the rest of the house needed to be up and at 'em at the crack of dawn in order to join her in excited solidarity.

JULIA: (bouncing on my bed at 6:30am) Mommy, Mommy!  Get up, get up!  It's my school FIELD TRIP today!  Get up, get up!  We don't want to be LATE!

This field trip was a particularly exciting one for Julia, since her class was going to Ward's Berry Farm in Sharon in order to explore the harvest and - best part, of course - pick pumpkins!!  It's about time!  Julia has only been on an autumn/Halloween kick since July, after all.  The class was also going to take a hayride around the farm, as well as sample apples from the orchards, so Julia was truly in fall-lovers paradise.

I myself was excited to hear all about the trip when I picked Julia up from school, so as we walked home, I had her fill me in.  She not only included the farm aspects of the trip, but the details of the bus rides there and back as well.

JULIA: So Mom.  On the bus ride back to school, Yasmine and I were, like, the only ones who were DEEP in CONVERSATION.  We just couldn't stop TALKING about trying to fix her pumpkin, because it got a CRACK in it, so we were making up this game called "Pumpkin goes to the hospital" and I was the Mommy Pumpkin and we kept using WET WIPES to try and cover the crack.  And, like, everyone else was just kind of, like, sitting QUIETLY and, like, ENJOYING the breeze from having the windows open a little bit, and I said to Yasmine, "Wow, we're really DEEP in conversation right now!"

Julia being a chatterbox?  What?  Unheard of!

I had to get my own pumpkin last night, as I gear up for a week of baking for various events.  When I returned home with pumpkin in hand, I found a very excited Julia waiting to take a look at my goods. 

JULIA: Mommy?  What KIND of pumpkin did you get?
ME: I got a sugar pumpkin.
JULIA: Hey!  Mom!  At the farm today, I picked out a sugar pumpkin too!
ME: Cool!  Sugar pumpkins are good for baking.
JULIA: But...I don't really want to EAT mine.  I want to put it on our stoop!
ME: That's fine.  You don't have to eat it.
JULIA: But Mom?  How do you KNOW that yours is a sugar pumpkin?
ME: Well, first of all, this is what sugar pumpkins look like.  But also, there was a big sign that said: "Sugar Pumpkins.  Great for eating."
JULIA: But how do you really KNOW it's a sugar pumpkin?
ME: I just told you.  How do you know YOURS was a sugar pumpkin?  Wasn't there a sign?
JULIA: There was no sign.  I just know it's a sugar pumpkin because, like, all my friends were TELLING me that's what it was.

I like how Julia is skeptical of my authority over whether or not the pumpkin I had purchased was indeed a sugar pumpkin, yet she takes the statements of other first graders as unquestionable fact.

At any rate, the picking of the pumpkin was clearly a highlight of the field trip for Julia, as you can see from her classwork report on the farm adventure:

I'm right there with her.  I would have been super excited if I had pike't a pumpkin too.

Meanwhile, Madeleine has plenty to be excited about as well, and her excitement is also kind of related to pumpkins.  I set about my first of many baking tasks yesterday as I prepared pumpkin muffins to bring to Madeleine's school today.  Since her real birthday is on Wednesday, and she doesn't actually go to school on Wednesdays, we brought in some birthday muffins to her class today.  Last night, I explained this to Madeleine, then told her that we'd do something fun on her real birthday as well, and THEN celebrate again over the weekend at her birthday party, and she could hardly handle the excitement.

MADELEINE: (yelling) I'M SO HAPPY, I COULD JUST...FALL DOWN ON THE FLOOR AND LAUGH!

So I guess I'll know what happened if, when I pick Madeleine up from school today, I find her fallen down on the floor.