Pumpkins aren’t usually found outside the garden, but on Saturday, they could be found bobbing about the Gleason Family YMCA’s indoor pool for the Y’s annual Pumpkin Splash.

The Pumpkin Splash, explained YMCA Aquatics Director Melissa Dyer, is an annual event in which kids of all ages and their families get to frolic in the pool with pumpkins, balloons, and, this year, colorful inner tubes, before choosing one of the pumpkins to decorate and take home.

“Here’s where all the magic happens,” Dyer said, gesturing to the Y’s lobby area that had been temporarily converted into an arts ‘n’ crafts station. “We have stickers, and glitter, and pipe cleaners, and buttons, and yarn, and everything under the sun. … It’s meant to be a creative way to decorate without having to carve into it. Hopefully, the pumpkin will last a little longer this way.”

It is the fourth year the Y has put on the event, but, this year, Dyer said there were fewer kids who attended this year. Last year’s event saw almost 60 kids, but this year there were only 34.

“I like bigger numbers, but it happened to fall on a bad weekend,” Dyer said. “There are several competing events in the area going on today.”

Dyer said she enjoys the Halloween season at the Y, because the events the center hosts are “for all ages.”

“This kind of an event – it can be for a child who is not even a year old yet,” Dyer said. “The colors, the sights, the sound the activity – to chase after a pumpkin, and do some games with it, it’s a lot of fun. And then, as we age, we still don’t lose, hopefully, that childish interest in holidays.”