Pumpkins For Days

Last year we planted mini pumpkins just to see how they did, and when we surprisingly got better results than we imagined we would get we used our timely harvest as a teaching opportunity. We asked everyone in our families to buy a pumpkin from P-double-B for 10 cents so we could teach our daughter about the importance of paying tithing and it went pretty smoothly.

Well, this year, we planted mini pumpkins again with even better results (this is approximately one-eleventh of her haul this year!):

Now I can't tell if I should be proud or worried because it looks like we have ourselves a budding entrepreneur on our hands. And boy, was she ruthless this year. None of this ten-penny nonsense for her now. She charged as much as "ten pennies and one dollar" for a single pumpkin! Whoa! Quite the price increase, but she is sure to make those capitalists proud.

We did take the opportunity to use her pumpkins as another money management learning moment, though, so I don't feel too bad and the ridiculous profits. Plus she's adorable and no one can say no to her, which isn't really her fault (nor mine). And when she declared she was going to traipse about the neighborhood vending her wares, I was relieved that our families stepped up and purchased all the remaining goods, so I didn't have to face the moral dilemma of participating in door-to-door sales or remaining on good terms with our neighbors. (Phew! Deflected! And you're welcome, neighbors.) So, considering the path this could have gone, I think our pumpkin experience went really well this year.