Punkin Chunkin!

It was a cloudy, rainy day for a Pumpkin Festival, but, it cleared up just enough, for just enough time, that the city of Aurora, CO was able to pull it off. We bundled up, and stroller and baby backpacks full, headed out for the fun a week ago this past Saturday. And it was worth the cold and snotty noses!

I wish these pictures could convey the movement and noise and excitement of it! It was almost impossible to photographically catch the pumpkins in mid air, because they went too fast, and too high, most of them. Or they turned to "Pie in the Sky" right out of the chute, and I couldn't catch that on the digital, either. Ah, well, you can imagine the children got a kick out of it, especially since the devices were often decorated, and the contestants were dressed in costume and put on silly skits.

But, the big draw, as you might guess, was the strolling volunteers giving away free candy.

There were ten or twelve contestants entered, and don't ask us who won, because we were too chilled to stay for the end. But I'm willing to bet it was one of the air canons. You can see them poking up here.
This was our favorite: Draco the Dragon, a trebuchet. His eyes light up,

and they have him rigged to breathe steam out his nostrils. Very cool.

This air canon went all out dressing up in inflatables, and sent its pumpkins about a 1/2 mile out into the meadow, and I'm only exaggerating a little bit . The canons and trebuchets being outstandingly better mechanisms for distance launching, there were only a couple simple catapults in the contest. They were fun to watch,though, as their pumpkins landed close to us where we could see them explode on the ground.

This is the only pumpkin I caught airborn. Can you see it up there?
Here's a shot of pumpkin debris in the grass. Can you see it? There was lots more, but most of it was way out in the field. Unfortunately, this just doesn't convey how much fun it is to see squash fly through the air and burst on the ground into a million pieces.