Sunday Citar ~Adventure

It’s Sunday again that means it’s time for one of my favorite things… Sunday Citar!!

“We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures that we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.”
~Jawaharlal Nehru

This morning, we woke to Autumn riding in on the back of a few hearty gusts of wind. The air seemed fresher, the temperatures happily dipping to a cool 70 and the palm trees in our back yard? Well, they danced in uniform celebration of this welcome guest, Fall’s cheerleaders twirling in victory.

I decided that drooling over cupcakes and amazingly carved pumpkins on Food Network’s Halloween Wars wasn’t enough, even though dabbling in the art of nothingness completely was. We practiced visiting with friends and sharing a meal together in our new kitchen, huddled over the counter and enjoying each others tales of moving while we took in a dance show down by two little babes. We celebrated the ordinary and let kids skip naps so that tickle fights on the couch and rest time could trump it, a decision that may or may not have paid off later.

But still, I needed my kids to remember the cool mornings that led to wagons littered with bright orange pumpkins, scouring rows for the perfect size and shape… and dragging it home to open it up for a gooey mess that later becomes a salty treat of pumpkin seeds and a sweet little face on the front porch. I want them to warm up with a cup of mulled cider and have to wipe sticky fingers on their shirts from a still-hot cinnamon sugar doughnut.

So we searched, literally, for any sign of a make-shift pumpkin patch set up so we could feel just a touch of home. Of fall. We drove, searching online, following the GPS on our phones, and I almost had us turn into a grocery store to buy one. But I just couldn’t do it.

Did we find a pumpkin today? No, not one we could bring home anyway, although there were a couple of pumpkin patches on church lawns, completely empty fields filled with tents and wagons and rows of the colored gourds sitting in wait, they just weren’t open. And we seriously considered browsing anyway and sliding some cash and a note through the front doors, but thought that may not be the best way to build wholesome traditions with the kids… so on we went. But we did happen upon a Fall Festival with, get this, shaved ice cones.  Toto, we’re DEFINITELY not in Michigan anymore.

We passed on the shaved ice and headed straight for the blow up slides and obstacle course, and any game that hands out “Uckers!” as prizes. “Suckers” if any of you were wondering. Oh yeah, and we feasted on some tasty little cupcakes with pumpkin colored frosting.

It was good.

But seriously, there will be pumpkins, and cider, and cinnamon sugar doughnuts soon.