The HOTTEST Great Pumpkin Farm

There's a special tradition in fall that my husband and I have been doing for about 10 years, it's The Great Pumpkin Farm in Clarence, NY! At first we would just try to get to the farm any Sunday in fall. Each weekend has a theme and we've been there for the great pumpkin weigh off and opening weekend, but our favorite weekend to attend is Oinktoberfest. It's a BBQ competition with BBQ vendors from around the area. Of course there's other food, games, rides, and pumpkins everywhere. It's just a fun autumn event that gets you in the Halloween spirit, at least that was my hope...

They have quirky drawings everywhere that I love!

Giant tower of pumpkins. 

I'm going to share something with you dear readers, I was married on Halloween ~  it's my favorite holiday ~ but this year I'm not feeling it. I'm not sure why either. I put out my Halloween decorations last weekend as a prequel to the Pumpkin Farm. Normally we put up a Halloween themed Christmas tree as a kick off to the Halloween season and leave it up through the end of December. This year we decided to nix that and put out fewer Halloween decorations, just as a change of pace. We have a Halloween room in our house, so many of the decorations stay out year round anyway. Everyday is Halloween.

Andrew and I and scarecrows! 

The past 6 years we've gone to Oinktoberfest weekend and invited our friends Elizabeth, Jason and their kids. It's one of the few times we see them, and honestly it's more fun with excited kids running around. This year a bigger group of us met up there and had fun eating BBQ, going on the hayride, feeding the animals and enjoying cold beverages. The Great Pumpkin Farm keeps improving and they've decreased their Halloween decor gift shop and increased their concessions to include beer from 12 Gates Brewery (their pumpkin pie beer is yummy!) along with Halloween themed mixed drinks! I should also mention it was 90 degrees and humid out, perfect cold beer weather. This could be my problem. IT'S TOO HOT for fall. We've gone when it's 40 degrees, we've gone when it's insanely windy, we've gone in rain and always have a good time. Now we can say we melted at The Great Pumpkin Farm.

Great pumpkin farm with great friends.