Falling...............Pt. 3

Now that fall finally happened on the OUTside of our house with leaves changing and cooler temperatures, I'm excited to share a few more of my fall decorating ideas.

The fall festival my hometown has every year happened two days after my tonsillectomy in September. I was heartbroken at first...But I used my recovery as leverage to talk my dad (who was home alone while my mom was down taking care of me) into buying me all of my outdoor fall supplies. I had 'mentally prepared' him about going shopping for me the week before, so he had an idea of what I needed.

My dad called me on Saturday while he was at the pumpkin sale to ask exactly what I wanted and to discuss prices. I told him I definitely wanted a mum and he told me what the color options were (he was nervous about getting the wrong color, so I tried to be laid back about it, but I'm in LOVE with the color he picked! ;) The huge mum you see in my pictures only cost me $10. At Wal-Mart and Hy-Vee where I've seen mums comparable to this size, they are between $20 and $30...sometimes shopping in Manson is SUCH a great deal. Here's a tip: I would encourage shopping in smaller towns and at smaller apple orchards, rather than buying your pumpkins at stores in the 'big city.' 

This is the same reason I refuse to get my hair 'did' by anyone besides by my bestie Erin Hood in Manson at her salon. Seriously...$60 bucks for full color, a trim, AND a 15-minute tan...just shut up. BTW, I'm in love with my new fall hair...

My throat hurt, but we continued to discuss the sizes of pumpkins and prices. I told my dad I wanted a variation of pumpkin sizes, five orange, and three or four white. He was very specific and tried to describe the size of the pumpkins on his end. I felt bad sending him to the fall festival alone, plus I just knew he was being awkward wandering around the sale with me on the phone trying to decide what to get...so I wrapped up the phone call and hoped for the best.

I didn't know this until three days ago when I was in Manson to pick up my fall goodies, but my father preceded to get eight of THE biggest pumpkins I've ever seen. Bless it.

You'll notice the ginormity of these pumpkins in all my pictures. My dad got quite a bang for my buck I would say, as I compared prices for everything I got in Manson to prices in Ames and realized I would have easily spent more than $100 on everything  you see outside my house. Instead I got all of this for $40.

I also found out later, that because of their size and where the fall sale was located this year, my dad had to back up the van and take multiple trips with a small red wagon to load all of these pumpkins in the vehicle...then turn around and unload them in the garage. Bless his little heart.

So while my mom was down taking care of me, my dad was home lugging a couple hundred pounds of pumpkins around, and this is my finished product:

Sometimes I think I need my parents more now than when I was in college. This weekend they're headed down to Ames armed with a shop-vac and supplies to start clean-up on our acreage. #spoileddaughter

In case you missed what the INside of our house looks like...you can see all my decorating ideas and shopping tips here and here. 

MmB