Pumpkins (and Heather) are here!

The pumpkins are here! The pumpkins are here! The pumpkins are here!

All week long, signs have been popping up EVERYWHERE in our neighborhood that "The pumpkins are coming"... Last year was the first of the annual pumpkin festival in our area. Sponsored by Life is Good, it is a free event supplying pumpkins to everyone for carving and activities for kids. All proceeds and donations went to great causes.

Image from last year's festival:

The event began at 3pm Saturday and was just a block from our house! Heather came into town and we decided to see what it was all about...

Nice and empty and organized (Later on will be a chaos of kids, sitting EVERYWHERE, carving pumpkins to add to the lighting later in the evening). It would be such a cool sight of the lighted gourds with the mountains in the backdrop (we couldn't stay long enough since Dave had a concert that evening).

Huge stack of pumpkins for people to take. We considered taking some to carve, but thought of all the kids that would show up later. We decided to go buy some of own later...

Heather and I came back to the pumpkin festival a couple hours later, and all the pumpkins were gone!

Heather sporting her Life is Good tattoo.

Hay bale maze for the kids! Bottom right is my next door neighbor. Her crazy twins are running around somewhere in the maze...
A couple of my coworkers stopped by the festival. Two of them brought their ADORABLE kid. She was very cool during her face painting experience. What a cutie!

Random change in topic:
Heather and I saw this sign at Palomar College later that evening (while waiting for Dave's concert to start). What in the world? I tried googling "Noon Pellaq" but got nothing.
Heather showing off her yoga-esque dancing move:

Today (Sunday) we decided to go get our pumpkins! Dave and I are still brainstorming our pumpkin designs, but Heather dove in and carved a very nice image:

Life is Good while scooping pumpkin guts

Um, showing off her stabbing, er, knife-wielding skills.
Pumpkin guts leads to yummy seeds for roasting!

Uh, I guess Heather really likes pumpkin?
ROWR! Mr. Feline Pumpkin! I love it, Heather!
Don't eat it before the kids see it!
Heather and her magnificent masterpiece.

(Don't forget to WD-40 the entire thing to preserve it a few extra days!!!)
And her roasted seeds were mighty tasty too!

YUM!