"Hooray for Peter Pumpkinhead"

As a family we have many annual traditions, an array of things that we look forward to throughout the year. I think it's so important as a family to have these special and personal things that we do. It's a way of bringing us together, especially with all the other things going on in our lives.

One of our yearly traditions is picking pumpkins at Essington fruit farm, When the temperature starts to drop that's when i start looking forward to our Halloween trip. I remember the first visit like it was yesterday travelling by tractor up to the Pumpkin patch, Opeie was 7 months old and when i looked back at the pictures a minute ago i was reminded just how little Seth was. It was cold but a lovely sunny day and we laughed and joked around in the field studying each pumpkin so that we could be sure to make the perfect selection

We missed the following year as the weather had been so awful, the crops had been rained off. Last year though it was all go and we were stomping through the pumpkin patch once more. What we didn't realise last year though was that we were not supposed to be in the field, we just made our own way and helped ourselves, oops. I love having these things to look forward to every year and the boys get so excited, It's nice to think these special family outings are giving them great lifelong memories.

So its that time of year again and last weekend seemed like the perfect time to head out on our yearly hunt for something big and orange to stick a knife it. Opeie was a little more excited this year too being that bit older. When we arrived at the farm we couldn't believe how busy it was. There was a country fare on and there were cars and people everywhere. They always have amazing carved pumpkins on show but this year they had the artists there so you could watch them at work.

The queue for the tractor ride up to the pumpkin field was insanely long so we decided to venture up to the pumpkin patch on foot. When we reached the field as always we were greeted by masses of the Halloween fruit ready for the taking...

We had our usual muck about, or should i say, Me and Mrs M as usual were acting like children...

But we were there on serious business and our 3 and 8 year old children informed us of that. Time to pick our pumpkins. picking the right pumpkin is a big decision and one not to be taken lightly. I cant wait to get carving this week.

Our Pumpkin picking session was cut a little short when a tired Opeie fell over in the field and got prickles in his hand, bless him, we were all getting a little cold though so we waited for the tractor to take us back. This years pumpkin picking adventure was complete, now time to let our creative juices run wild.

On the drive home i had a song stuck in my head inspired by the day. A CD I had bought when i was about 14 (wow 20 years ago that's crazy). I'll leave you with the song i was humming all the way home and i hope you have fun carving your pumpkins...

"Life is either a great adventure or nothing."

For us there is adventure around every corner, its easy to initiate adventure though when you have young children. Everything is new and fun for them, i would love to be that innocent again. A couple of days back, before picking up Mrs M from work we drove to a random field and went for a walk. The next field over was filled with long grass so Seth was really excited about running about in there.

Seth was being the big scary monster and chasing after me and Opeie snarling and grunting. Opeie laughed and screamed all the way through the grass. We came out the other side and over the hill in front of us was an old derelict rail track. Seth was so excited he could barely catch his breath it was so cute. Seth did his usual and fired a barrage of questions at me which as a father I'm sure I'm supposed to be able to answer, sadly I'm a Birmingham boy and still not that clued in on Shropshire yet. Luckily I nearly always have my best friend Google to hand to save me from any embarrassment when it comes to Shropshire trivia.

I had told Seth that maybe it was for transporting coal (being big business here back in the day) and luckily my BFF Google confirmed I was correct, giving Seth faith that I continue to be the oracle of random information. We didn't have long to Investigate the area but now I know it's definitely derelict we will go for a walk along there in the holiday. The track was the topic of conversation for the remainder of the evening and I'm sure Seth is already planning what will be going in to his adventure backpack and what him and his little sidekick will be getting up to.

"Some painters transform the sun into a yellow spot, others transform a yellow spot into the sun."

Well it's been another glorious day in Shropshire and as usual we've made the most of it trying to keep out and about. It was lovely this morning being on a blanket in the garden at 8am reading a book while the boys played at the water table, but if there's any truth in what the met office is currently saying about tomorrow's weather we'll be lucky to get any sunshine! Got to stay positive though! Today while we were out in the car we spotted some rapeseed fields from the road and headed over to find somewhere to park for some quick photos.

I love the colour of the fields and couldn't wait to get snapping surrounded by all that yellow. Family photos are so important to me no matter how trivial the situation may be (like pulling up at the side of the road), I want the boys to have great memories of growing up because I don't have as many as I would have liked. I want them to look at old photos and think 'growing up was amazing'.

Opeie was excited by all the yellow flowers but that could be because of his new love of curious George and the man with the yellow hat. We will definitely be on the lookout for Sunflower and Poppy fields next.