And while we shared the Ren Fest with thousands of our best geeked out friends , we shared Pumpkin Festival with the entire town of Webster South Dakota. It’s the tiny little community I lived in until I was 10, that my mom grew up in, and her dad before her. It is where “The Farm” is located, my magical home away from home I so often reference. You may have assumed this was a made up place, but it does indeed exist.
This is a huge deal for us. We pack up babies and big dogs in our uber cool & hip suburban loser cruiser and hit the road! Piled front to back with Pumpkin Festival “must haves” like favorite hoodies, chunky knitted scarves and fingerless gloves, supplies for pumpkin decorating and homemade party decorations. Autumn made some fantastic construction paper garland.
My mom traveled to Webster with a car full of pumpkins, ingredients for fall soups and bread bowls. This is what it’s about baby…Fall Festivals! Throw on the orange turtleneck sweater and do it up.
Everyone had arrived by Friday afternoon in flurry of phone calls that went something like this..."We are an hour away, what do we still need for dinner?" No matter how meticulous the planning, there are always reasons to "run into town." I love that phrase, I am going start using it again.
This year the first dinner was at Aunt Maria's. Us "kids" owned the kitchen while the matriarchs took the night off. It's nerve wracking to cook for these women...thus the beer & wine trip "to town." We packed ourselves into her kitchen and crossed our fingers as we worked as a team to ensure the meal went as planned, hors devours out, drinks served, salmon and grilled veggies timed perfectly and keeping mothers out of the kitchen.
They had jobs...
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| Water the babies |
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Love them up
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| And these babies are so easy to love up.... |
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| so are the fur babies. |
And most important...laugh
I give them a GOLDSTAR on all tasks.
It's hard to describe what happens to this family when we leave behind our cities and our work to come here. There are no boundries...we share children, mothers, fathers, pets, food & drink. And oh so much laughter.
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| That's right...fest jammies. |
Day two...up early...because it's time for the 5k and fun walk. This year the mommas decided to walk with the babies and the dads ran. Always the perpetual cheerleader, my mom hooked us up with a uniform. I love this stuff.
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| Team Coffee Cup Fuels Stop |
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| Liam can hardly contain his enthusiasm. |
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| Someone anticipating pain? |
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| Teresa strapped on Cece rocked the fun walk like a champ. |
Turns out it was a record year for the old "Pumpkin Fest" 5k and Fun Walk. I hope it grows to be as epic as it is in our minds. It's only a 5k, but in alot of ways it's our 5k. We've made it one of the rare occasions we all make the trip to Webster, no excuses. And to see more and more people come together on these beautiful fall mornings makes my heart happy...it means there will be more Pumpkin Fests for us to come together for....no excuses.
The rest of the day flows effortlessly. Omelets at Pereboom's, walk through the city flower garden and guess the giant pumpkin weight.
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Liam gets it...stop and sit in the flowers man.
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| So many huggy moments. |
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| Pumpkin decorating contest |
AND SHOPPING!!!!!
A rookie would drive through Webster without thinking to stop and shop. A rookie would..but we are no rookies. There are treasures everywhere. The Antique stores never fail to deliver, the drug store occasionally sells grab bags (one year we cleaned them out, just the Wattiers...it was every man for himself) but the destination is always...Fiksdal's.
I can't describe it, and I was too busy shopping to snap enough photos to do it justice, but here is a taste...
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My husband loves the food samples... the unique & delicious items you can buy here. He moves towards the back of the store on autopilot. He knows there are dips and jellies and always his favorite pumpkin bars.
I bought my favorite apron here, my favorite jalapeno jelly, favorite dish rag, favorite little birdies, favorite coffee mug and this year I found my Pumpkin Fest treasure here. I present...my lady bug ring...
And there are others just as precious. And only $10.00. Finding treasures, that's what it's all about. And boy do we find them. |
So...what does "South Dakota Style" mean exactly?
It means this little town throws open its doors and welcomes the world into its cozy, festive, Norman Rockwell's fall spot. And it is groovy. And we go all out. We are in the 5k, even with hangovers from a late night of wine and laughter on the farm. We cruise every antique store, snatching up Kiss albums vintage fabrics and cookie presses. And we are once again sipping wine to stay warm during the Parade of Fall Lights. We are city kids, trying to drink in every second of this festive country weekend with its unbelievably rich colors and textures of life. Where our lives are dazzling smooth stainless steel, this life is a warm patchwork of flannels and denim. And when we are here, we are completely committed to it…we are farm kids again.
