Fall fun in Happy Valley

Meeting the Lion

Fall has officially arrived in Happy Valley! It seems as if it swooped in overnight but I assume it has taken much longer.  This weekend is Homecoming for Penn State which brings many alums back to town and blankets campus with a palpable energy.  Sometimes during football weekends I default to hermit mode and refuse to venture into town but the excitement lured me out of hiding.  My husband and I took our girls to the homecoming parade on Friday night.  The Parade is lauded as one of the best of its kind and I tend to agree.  An array of participants marched down College Avenue from the Air Force ROTC to Brazillian Dancers dressed for Carnival.  The Parade was distinctly multicultural this year; we saw student contingencies from Spain, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, Korea and beyond.  M gleefully yelled that every group from a tropical region was, "Hawaii Girls!" and E waved at the walkers on the sidewalk, thinking that everyone was in the parade but no one cared.  The atmosphere was pure celebration and fun!  For two hours we cheered, waved, high-fived and rejoiced in our collective Penn State Pride.

In the Pumpkin Patch

This morning we continued riding our high-energy wave and arrived at the Fall Festival at Way Fruit Farm as soon as it opened.  The Festival is an annual tradition at the farm and is also a fundraiser for an orphanage in the Dominican Republic. Last year I was very pregnant with E and declined to go on the hay ride to the pumpkin patch opting instead to enjoy the selection of rocking chairs in front of the main building but this year E was with us in person and we both happily partook of the bumpy, windy journey.  My husband and I spotted our pumpkin after about two minutes of hunting but M was much more picky.  She was looking for a small pumpkin she could carry and it couldn't be orange, she didn't want hers to look like all the others.  I tried explaining to her that all of the pumpkins in this patch were orange and that was just the way it was but she was insistent and of course she found the pumpkin for her -- the perfect size for four year old arms and bright green!  When we returned to the Farm we perused the various craft booths and indulged in Apple Cider Donuts but the green pumpkin treasure was the highlight of the day!