Since my sons are no longer of the age for pumpkin patch excursions, I must find excuses each year to frolic in a pumpkin patch on my own! And since I don’t take pumpkin carving as seriously as my husband, I must find means other than a knife to decorate pumpkins. (See pic below, yes he really did carve that!) This year’s “pumpkin patch excursion excuse” was to give my dogs some exercise on a beautiful fall Sunday afternoon. The super sweet farmer even let me walk my four-legged companions through the corn maze! (Do you think he felt sorry for a woman all alone with two dogs at a pumpkin farm?) 
Here is what I wanted to share with you… I painted one of the pumpkins with CHALKBOARD paint. It was very easy and you can write or draw anything you wish on the chalkboard paint, after it dries for 24 hours. I purchased the chalkboard paint at Home Depot. It really is quick and easy to do.
Easy craft idea: keep a “countdown” pumpkin in your classroom until Halloween! Each day, you or a student can erase the number and write in a new number on the pumpkin until it’s finally “0″ days left until Halloween!
And of course we know what that means… a little extra mischief and a lot of candy! Or if you’re trying to cut down on your little monster’s sugar intake that day, you still have time to give them Halloween BragTags! Halloween BragTags, including shipping to your school, are less than the cost of giving each student a candy bar (and a lot healthier too)!
See what I mean, my husband takes his pumpkin carving very seriously. But trick is on him, each year our friends have high expectations, and on more than one occasion, he’s let them down.
Seve and Tiger, my four-legged pumpkin patch companions. The pumpkin farmer even gave them apple cider, which they politely drank without spilling a drop. haha!
Enjoy the COUNTDOWN until Halloween!
