I had big plans last weekend to visit the pumpkin patch. We go every year, and we’d been talking about it and the kids were totally excited and ready to go.  Our local pumpkin patch has big tractor-pulled hayrides out to the patch itself, where you pick your pumpkin.  There’s an awesome little gift shop, which is super fun to browse.  There are big fields where they put out toy tractors for the kids to ride, as well as a petting zoo type area.  They have displays set up of hay bales, pumpkins and mums for picture taking.  And our favorite part- they have this home-style country restaurant with amazing food.  So we love to make a day out of it, and eat dinner there after choosing our pumpkins.

But for some reason, this year, there were just too many people.  They had three tractors going for the hayrides, and the lines were still incredibly long, wrapping around and doubling back many times over.  We thought we’d hit up the restaurant first instead, since it wasn’t dinner time- and that line extended for ages as well.  We didn’t even attempt to step foot in the gift shop, assuming it was beyond crowded.

We packed up the choo-choo wagon and some very disappointed kids and decided to come up with an alternative plan.  We hadn’t planned on cooking that night, because we thought we’d be eating at the restaurant at the pumpkin patch.  So we also had to figure out dinner, and I wanted something that would cook quickly, but would be fun for the kids so they wouldn’t be so bummed about the lack of pumpkin carving that night.  And I figured if it was something they could help with, or be creative with, it would be a bonus.

Our solution?  A make your own pizza party with Flatout!

We used three flavors of the Flatout Thin Crust Flatbreads Artisan Pizza – Rustic White, Heritage Wheat, and Spicy Italian.  For toppings, we found a squeeze pizza sauce that would be easy for the toddlers to use, shredded cheese, and then we went nuts with olives, mushrooms, peppers, ham, pineapple, and pepperoni for everyone to choose from.  With a little help from their big sisters, even the twins were able to create their own masterpieces.

As the kids waited impatiently for the five minutes it took for their pizzas to cook, the adults started assembling theirs.  Aaron seemed to think that it would be a shame to have any leftover toppings.  E layered more sauce and cheese on top of his toppings.  It’s safe to assume that kids of all ages had a blast creating the perfect pizzas.

Thank you so much to The Motherhood, Flatout and Walmart for making what could have been a disappointing day fun again by providing all the necessary supplies!