Pumpkin Fun at the Dallas Arboretum

Today, I took the kids to the Dallas Arboretum.

I have done this every year since Jack was born.  I spend a lot of time picking out the perfect Fall outfits and we head to the Arboretum, which can only be described as The Most Perfect Place to Take Pictures, Ever.

This year they have over 50,000 pumpkins on display.  50,000!

The kids love pumpkins.  Claire actually insists that pumpkins are moons - "moon! moon! moon!" she'll say as she points at every.single.pumpkin she sees.

See?  Pointing at a pumpkin and saying "moon!"

The weather was great - overcast and sprinkling, just enough to keep the crowds down and provide for some great photo ops.

After chasing the kids through the pumpkins, begging them over and over (and over again!) to please just look at the camera and smile (which they ignored), I loaded them up in the stroller, gave them a baggie of Cheerios to fight over eat, and strolled along to look at the Chihuly exhibits (which are on display through November 5th - if you're local, please go and see these...they're amazing!).

And as luck would have it, we stumbled upon the Best Photo Op EVER...and not a single person was in our way.

At this point (and we had only been there for maybe an hour!), Jack was completely burnt out from having a camera in his face (and probably tired of listening to me nag at him to smile...which he wasn't doing, anyway).  So when I asked him to please get out of the stroller and walk down this path, his response was to shove his hand into his baggie of Cheerios and say, "No, mom...I'm too hungry!"

On a different day, I might have pulled them out of the stroller and sent them down the path anyway, but I had a feeling they weren't going to cooperate.  And they had mud all over their shoes, and I had on a white shirt that already had a footprint (or two) on it, and I was kind of over it, myself.

So, I snapped a few pictures and we went on our merry way.

I never did get the picture I had dreamed of...the picture of both kids, sitting next to each and smiling, their color-coordinated outfits that I worked so hard to pick out contrasting beautifully with the orange sea of pumpkins.  Oh no.  There was nothing like that.

But it was a fun day with the kids, and Claire got to see lots of "moons" - so what more can I ask for, right? Surely next year...when they'll be two and almost five...they'll sit still and smile for me when I ask them to, right?  Right!?