I finally broke down.

After over a decade of living in New England, this Carolina girl bought her first Yankee Magazine subscription. It was time to come to terms with our new Northern normal.

When that first issue arrived — the one devoted to all things leaf-peepish — I found a blurb on a Connecticut whimsy mecca I’d never heard of before: Pumpkintown USA.

Y’all. (I still say that, Yankee subscription or no Yankee subscription…)

It is just the CUTEST thing.

And it’s Day 13 in my 31 Days of Fun/Funny Stuff for Families (or at least families who live in these parts). Pumpkintown is just adorable, and it’s open every day through Halloween.

As part of a family-run greenhouse in East Hampton, CT (near Colchester – for the uninitiated), Pumpkintown is all about the gourds – each one painted and posed like really smiley humans throughout a makeshift village of barber shops and wedding chapels and county jails.

From your seat on the family hayride, you can spot more of these goofy gourds scattered through the woods — skiing, chilling in a deer stand, splitting logs, (and my personal favorite) manning a moonshine still.

Here’s one caught reading his paper in the outhouse.

This Southern girl felt right at home.

There are, of course, cider donuts and actual cider and kettle korn — all for pretty cheap.

Plus, kids can run amuck in a little hay maze and bounce their brains out in a big inflatable pumpkin and in a garden of bouncy tires.

There’s about a million places to make your kids stick their heads in and pose. Here’s a sampling:

We went home with many gourds.

And I went home with that warm-fuzzy Mom feeling.

The family unit experienced someplace new, we soaked in some fall colors, and MAN, did we ever get our fall New England whimsy on. I loved it.

So I’m just gonna put it all out there and say…(wait for it)…

Pumpkintown USA. You’d be out of your gourd not to go.