Pumpkin carving

Is it bad that the only reason I was motivated to carve our pumpkins is for the seeds? Not for the joy of my children and allowing them to channel their creativity on this once-a-year activity, but because I like roasted pumpkin seeds. The fun my children had was just a bonus on top of my fall treat. :)

Ok, ok, I really did have fun, too. I honestly love it when we can all do something special like this together. It's not every day you get to carve pumpkins and dig out seeds. This is prime memory-making time, and it's impossible not to enjoy myself when my kids are having so much fun.

But let me just say that pumpkin carving would have been so much quicker and easier if I didn't want to save those darn seeds! Luckily I employed slave labor to separate the seeds in exchange for carving their designs into the pumpkins. :) No, I'm still not cool handing knives over to my kids...which is smart if they're anything like me and really bad with knives. Don't tell Adam, but I almost severed a finger trying to cut the top off one of the pumpkins. (Note to self: bigger knives are not necessarily better!)


ewwwwww!!! 

Anyway, the finished results were totally worth the slimy mess.

Aidan came up with a brilliant original design of a flaming headed vampire ghost (on the left). Logan needed some guided inspiration, so we googled and he picked his favorite. I traced and cut the pumpkins with lots of "you're doing awesome!" encouragement from the boys.

Confession: after gutting and carving 2 pumpkins, I was really not into doing it a 3rd time for Lorelai. But thanks to this inspiration, we worked out a way for her to participate in the decorating. I even had the tissue paper already out for something else, so it was super easy. I just used my shape punches and we were in business.

I had contemplated having her paint her pumpkin (the boys really wanted me to carve "boo" and their plan B was to paint "boo") but I didn't have the right kind of paint, so maybe we'll do that next next year. Regardless, she had fun getting in on the action and the boys did a great job helping her.



Easy + fun = my kind of project (even if it doesn't look as great as the YHL inspiration photo--had I planned this better, I would have tried to find a white pumpkin).


They're all currently hanging out inside, nice and protected from the wind and rain courtesy of Sandy.