A while back my mom, sisters and I decided to have a contest to see who could grow the biggest pumpkin. Well, that great pumpkin challenge has been quite a challenge, all right. I figured by now we’d have nice sized pumpkins growing on these beautiful green vines, and each of us would be out there measuring our big pumpkins to see who was winning so far. The challenge would be in full swing, with each of us neck in neck and carefully tending to our pumpkins, in hopes that we’d be the one who could successfully grow the largest one.

But in reality, it’s not been like that at all. In fact, the challenge has been trying to keep our plants alive. One of my sisters had a mishap with hers; she planted it then her husband accidentally mowed it off. My other sister also had a mishap with hers. She planted it in a pot, then decided to move it and accidentally broke it off. She quickly ordered more seeds and replanted because her daughter was super disappointed and still wanted to try to grow one. Hers is growing well, but we’re doubtful that it will have time to produce a pumpkin.

Squash bugs are starting to invade so she dusted it.

The squash bugs won the battle I was having with them…..

I threw in the towel, mowed them off and am out of the contest. 😦

Mom’s plant is hanging in there. It’s been slowly but steadily growing and so far, the squash bugs haven’t discovered it.

It even has a few small pumpkins on it, but for some reason, they grow a little bigger than this and then fall off.

Our pumpkin challenge sure has been challenging; so challenging in fact, that we decided to tweak the rules a little. Whoever has the longest living plant, or can get them to survive until frost will be the winner/winners because the way this challenge has gone, that will be one amazing accomplishment.