There’s a plethora of pumpkins up in here!

I finally (FINALLY!) had a free Saturday, so this morning my Mom and I bundled up against the 45° chill, grabbed a hot Starby’s to keep our paws warm, and headed down to the Farmers’ Market where there were pumpkins at every turn!

Little ones,

lumpy ones,

long handled ones,  

and everything in between.

I found these flawless pumpkins for $3 each, and picked up two for Ben and me.

 

It was all fun and games ’til I hoifed the one with the crooked stem into the car when we were leaving, only to have it snap off, fall 4 feet to the ground and roll away down the parking ramp…NOOOO!

Miraculously it remained perfectly intact – just got a little trim off the top!!

"I thought we were going to have pumpkin mash on our hands for a second there!" my Mom exclaimed. Pumpkin mash. HAHAHA. I could not stop laughing at this.

The only thing competing for pumpkin’s reign over the market, were the apples.

Any and all varieties, in crates and barrels by the dozens. I can’t wait to go apple picking sometime in the next couple of weeks!

The rest of the market was overflowing with a cornucopia of Fall produce, whose dazzling colors made me insanely giddy. I could not stop snapping photos!

 

 

#cantstopwontstop

This baby bulldog also kind of stole my heart. Right? Look at her pink collar!

When all was said and done, I came home with the aforementioned pumpkins, some mini punkin’s (4/$1!), Eastern Iowa Honeycrisps and fresh apple cider.

Does it get any cuter than this?!

 

Actually, it does. 

After the market Finn came over to my parent’s house to spend the day!

He and Grandma had a blast playing together, 

 

and since the Iowa Hawkeyes played this afternoon, we taught him how to shout, "Go Hawkeyes!!!"

Maybe you didn’t hear me?!

YOU! DID YA’ HEAR ME??? 

I said, GOOOO HAWKEYES!!! Besides being hystorable (hysterical + adorable) it must’ve worked. The Hawkeyes beat Louisiana, 45-17. Whee!

Well, the rest of the afternoon shall be filled with laundry and maybe a quick nap before heading over to a friend’s house for some girl time tonight.

Before I go though, I wanted to announce the winners of the Chocolate Chip Cherry Torte Larabar Giveaway. Congrats to:

Jen: Being home with my 2 week old baby girl

Sarah Sue: The highlight of my week will be the Hawkeye game and my youngest daughter’s soccer game. Finally they are are different times this week

Yahoo! Email your address to IowaGirlEats@gmail.com, and I’ll get those right out to you.

Happy Saturday everyone!

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When it comes to carving pumpkins, do you go the traditional jack o’ lantern route, or get fancy with stencils and such?