Memories made at the pumpkin patch

Several weeks ago, we took a family trip to the pumpkin patch. If you know me at all, you know I am a sucker for a good photo-op. I look at a situation and think, "Oooh, I have the perfect scrapbook paper for the page I'm going to make with that picture." I have years of pictures and memories dutifully bound in scrapbooks, sitting on my bookshelf.

If I were to psycho-analyze myself with all the psychological insight earned from years of watching characters go to therapy in tv shows and movies, I might go so far as to say that I love pictures because my own memory is so bad. Seriously. You could fly a fleet of jumbo jets through the holes I have in my childhood memories. Halloween? I remember exactly two costumes. Princess and punk rocker. Two. That's it!

Well, I really hope my own children remember more of their childhoods, and I definitely don't want to forget a minute of it myself, so I try to document every single possible photo-op.

Thus enters the pumpkin patch. If you can imagine, my yearly scrapbooks are not complete without the requisite fall pictures with pumpkins. Now, I'm not saying that I only take the girls to a pumpkin patch in order to get a good picture. I mean, I hope they have fun while we're there, but I also really hope I get some good pictures!

If only I could get Charlotte to smile at the camera. I know she's only 20 months, but really, she's my child. She should understand by now what is expected in this family. Molly's got it down. She has posing nailed, most of the time. Now, we're just working on the second child.

Unfortunately, Charlotte did not cooperate at the pumpkin patch. She cried and clung. A lot. And, it was hot. No cute fall sweaters here. And, you know what else didn't cooperate? The pumpkins! Apparently, something about the heat and drought took its toll on this year's pumpkin crop.

I had to readjust my dreams of shooting two sweater-clad smiling girls amongst rows and rows of bright orange plump pumpkins. How about one sometimes smiling girl and one crying one wandering around a dusty field of wilted brown vines with the occasional pumpkin thrown in? Not exactly what I was hoping for. But, I guess if I want to have memories, I can't polish them to perfection. They are probably better with wilted vines and crying girls. At least they're real. And, they're mine.

Posing with Molly and some of the good looking pumpkins.

Not sure why Molly looks so upset to be on a hay ride to the pumpkin patch. She had a great time, I swear!

Here's the dusty, wilted field. You can make out a couple pumpkins, though.

Molly finds one she likes.

Charlotte crying. At least the sky was a beautiful blue color.

Molly posing in a pumpkin cut-out.

The one time we got Charlotte to kind of smile.

We took a picture of Molly here last year. It looks like she's grown at least 4 inches. Wowza!