Pumpkin Patch Picnic

I'm one of those corny mamas who loves themed events. I can remember when I first started having children, (long before Pinterest) and throwing elaborate themed birthday parties with all sorts of DIY props and games related to the birthday theme. Fast forward 19 years and now we have the gift of Pinterest. No longer is it overly time-consuming or complicated to plan and create fun themed events.

As I shared yesterday, we've been going to the pumpkin patch at Old Baker Farm for 14 years. The first year we attended we did not bring any food, the concessions were very limited and expensive, and since the farm is located in the middle of nowhere, there was zero restaurants in the vicinity. What was essentially a wonderful day quickly turned into a not-so-fun situation filled with cranky little kids in dire need of a decent meal. Did I mention the farm is about an hour away? Talk about a long drive home!!! 

In true motherly fashion, I refused to make that same mistake again and from that point on all our trips to the pumpkin patch has included a picnic. And since it is such a fun-filled memory making destination, it only seemed fitting that the food we bring was themed accordingly. 

I never make anything overly complicated for our pumpkin patch picnic. I find that it's the simple things that the children really appreciate ~ so that is what I focus on. These days it's even easier preparing our pumpkin patch picnic since I have older children who don't mind lending a helping hand. 

Nothing too difficult with this treat, just drawing pumpkin faces on orange (or peach) fruit cups. Make sure the cups are at room temperature. If they are cold the Sharpies dry out.

Pumpkin faces on mini Gatorade bottles.

I found these cute pumpkin poop bag toppers for free on Pinterest.

Simple Fall Snack Mix

Pumpkin Patch picnic in full swing.

We also had homemade chicken salad sandwiches to finish off our Pumpkin patch picnic. Last year I found after the season clearance pumpkin plates and napkins. 

Picnicking is the way to go if you ask me. We save money and have great food. I also splurge on food  and drinks which I don't normally buy. This helps to balance out the fact that we aren't eating from the concessions or dining out. Now, we aren't complete fair food Scrooges. We typically treat the children to a treat or two when we attend these fun functions. This year we bought the kiddos kettle corn and lemonades. Plus big brother who could not attended, sent money to buy his siblings snow cones. (Perks of having a large family ~ older siblings are suckers for spoiling the younger ones, lol).

Each year I tweak our pumpkin patch picnic, but this year I think it was the best. Nothing complicated or time consuming to make. Just a few simple themed additions to make our pumpkin patch picnic extra special for my favorite people. They may or may not ever remember my corny efforts to make our adventures memorable. But it doesn't really matter because I love doing it and the effort is well worth it to me just to see their sweet smiling faces enjoying their picnic lunches.

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Simple Fall Snack Mix

There's nothing like Fall and all the fun food that goes along with the season. It's no secret that Summer is my favorite season (mostly because I'm extremely cold-natured and despise cold weather), but Fall runs a close second. The temperature begin to become tolerable (for those of us who reside  in the Deep South), the trees put on a display of beauty no words could adequately describe, and the fun seasonal food is simply divine!

Once the calendar switches to September, our family is in hyper-memory making mode. Our days, especially the weekends, are filled with wonderful seasonal traditions. One of those many traditions includes visiting a real pumpkin patch/working farm in Harpersville, Al. We've been visiting Old Baker Farm for the past 14 years, without fail. We've had the privilege of watching it grow into a spectacular family event destination. 

And since I'm one of those ultra corny mama's I always have to bring along themed food for our traditional pumpkin patch picnic. Now y'all this is nothing fancy or time consuming, just a simple snack mix that adds a little flair to our dining experience while at the pumpkin patch.

One of our family's must-have food items for our pumpkin patch picnic is a Simple Fall Snack Mix. There are tons of snack mix recipes plastered all over the Internet; and I find that every family has their own special twist. But for me personally, I do not have time, energy, or the funds to make overly complicated recipes; even for our special pumpkin patch snack mix. Which is why I made our family's Fall Snack Mix recipe budget friendly and quick to make.

Simple Fall Snack Mix

Ingredients  

• Pretzels
• Bugles chips
• Peanuts
• Candy corn or pumpkin candies 
• Fall M&M candies

Directions

Mix all ingredients together and store in an airtight container or sealed baggies.

I typically let the kiddos get their hands into making this super simple recipe. It's fun to have my children help in the kitchen and it gives them an opportunity to serve their family. Since we were taking this fall snack mix to the pumpkin patch, I had the children place half cup portions into fall bags. This year I didn't use the pumpkin candies because they're kind of large and I wanted Lydia (our not quite 2yr old) to be able to eat her snack mix on her own. 

Most years I buy the Fall colors plain M&M chocolate candies, but this year I couldn't find any and I ended up buying a bag of pumpkin spice flavored M&M's. They were very unusual to say the least. Not bad or good, just different, lol. I would say half of my people liked the pumpkins spice flavored M&M's while the other half didn't care for them at all. And to that I simple say, "You can't please them all, all the time!"

While it isn't a must for us to have themed food to bring to the pumpkin patch, it is fun and we all enjoy the break from the 'norm'. We picnic a lot, it's just par for the course with a large family. It saves us money and allows us to better allocate our funds for future 'experiences' verses food. I try to add variety to our picnic food, and with it being fall and this particular outing being to a pumpkin patch; it only seemed fitting to make a Fall Harvest Snack Mix. 

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer