Pumpkin Village

Even though the weather doesn’t feel like it here in Texas, it is technically fall. Which means we must do “fall-ish” things, like cook lots of stews (in the past 2 weeks, I’ve made 2 killer stews, so delicious), drink pumpkin flavored drinks and eat pumpkin flavored food, and of course pose for pictures with pumpkins. So when Jaye and I were invited to preview the Pumpkin Village at the Dallas Arboretum, we were excited.
 Well, at least I was excited. Every year, the Arboretum creates a giant Pumpkin Village with little houses made out of pumpkins! Seriously, I have never seen so many pumpkins in one place. It took 65,000 pumpkins to build the Pumpkin Village. All shapes and sizes. And even some gourds, too.
The Pumpkin Village has houses of various sizes made of pumpkins. Inside, each house has pictures and text from a storybook about pumpkins. This one had the story of Strega Nona which was one of my favorites growing up.
 Of course, there were also plenty of scarecrows and a haybale maze. Jaye didn’t quite get the “maze” concept but she loved running around in the hay.

 She also didn’t quite get the “photo op” concept of the Pumpkin Village. All the hay and pumpkins and gourds and fall goodness just screams out “Perfect Photo Background!” But silly faces was the order of the day. However, if you visit, maybe the pumpkins will inspire your little ones to smile prettily.

We had a fun morning. Jaye liked exploring the houses and having me read the story in each one. There was also Cinderella’s Pumpkin carriage drawn by two huge corn husk horses. There’s a pumpkin patch area with pumpkins available for purchase.

The Pumpkin Village at the Dallas Arboretum runs September 20 through November 26th. It is located in the Pecan Grove and is included in admission to the Arboretum. Have you been? What’s your favorite fall family tradition?