If you hate pumpkins, do not return to this blog until after October. Wait. Even after all the pumpkin parties and the weigh-offs, there is fall soil prep, winter seed obsession and it starts all over again with spring planting.
If you don’t like pumpkins, you simply will not like this blog.
Or cool chicks who spray-paint orange streaks in their hair for the festivities.
It has been a whirlwind week of pumpkins and more pumpkins that is best documented in pictures.
Friday was our 2nd Annual Big Pumpkin Party.
When my blogging bud JoAnn told someone she was going to a big pumpkin party, her friend commented it sounded like a huge crowd.
“No,” she replied. “I mean a BIG PUMPKIN party.”
And that it was.
But it was also big as in “a whole lotta people in attendance.” We estimate we had around 80-100 people stop by.
This year, I requested that guests bring their favorite pumpkin treat and lo did they deliver.
We had pumpkin gingerbread trifle, cakes, fudge, pies, crisp, ice cream, cookies and the crowd favorite: pumpkin egg rolls.
In addition to eating Everything Pumpkin, the itinerary at a Big Pumpkin Party consisted of cutting the pumpkins off the vine and hauling them. We started with Haddie and Bode’s pumpkin.
Next was the bigger challenge: Redemption Boy. And yes, Jamie names his pumpkins. This nomenclature was in reference to his pumpkin that got wiped out last year by the tornado.
He grows his giants on the property behind our house. Our neighbor has a forklift and that is exactly what was needed to haul this beast. First item of business: putting on the lifting straps.
Next, they hooked it up to the forklift. Special thanks to our friend Andy for saving Jamie’s life by driving.
(Jamie somehow thought he could operate it after a mere 5-minute lesson. Cough, cough)
Once it was successfully hooked up, Jamie checked the bottom of the pumpkin for any cracks that would disqualify it from competition. Believe it or not, people cheat by injecting water to increase the weight.
Once he gave it the thumbs-up, the crowd erupted into cheers. Actually, the highlight of the entire evening for me (besides all the pumpkin food) was seeing how enraptured everyone was by the process.
Except for Bode. My shy little guy was overwhelmed by all the people and kept begging me to go home and watch Wipeout. When the ceremony was completed, I let him do it with the promise that he would imagine the big balls as big pumpkins.
If you’ve never watched Wipeout, you will have no idea what that means.
Even the media made an appearance at the Big Pumpkin Party to interview Jamie.
I’ll be sure to include that link once it is published. He was also interviewed by the Mormon Times. I was responsible for pitching the story to both publications.
Just call me the Pumpkin’s Publicist.
Though as the event wound down, my neighbor Keith christened me, “The First Lady of the Pumpkin.”
Though no one will ever come close to being The Lord of the Gourds.
Stay tuned for the disappointments and triumphs of the big weigh-off.
I'm a Canadian-born mom of two, former Denver Post columnist, family travel writer, editor of MileHighMamas.com and 9News contributor. Expert on all things Utah, Denver, family and travel. Lover of laughter and life. Happily married to a man obsessed with growing The Great Pumpkin. 