Pumpkin Carving 2010

On 10-9-10, we had a pretty good plan for the day. We started by thanking God as a family for this beautiful weather. It was sunny and in the 70s - just gorgeous! Shawn had gotten a couple things at a farmer's market the day before, and they gave him a free large pumpkin. So, we knew pumpkin carving was in order, even though our little "Jack" may not last until Halloween. We'll see! Here's Daddy and our pumpkin, untouched.

Once Daddy cut off the top, Caleb wanted to look at the insides. I was amazed that he didn't want to dive right in and get messy. In fact, he was the cleanest one of our group (well, until lunch time!). 

I was also amazed that Joshua said yes when Daddy asked if he'd like to reach in and dig some of the goopy goo out.

We had two bowls, one for anything that came out of the pumpkin, and one that we separated the 'clean' seeds in for roasting later.

Joshua decided to let Daddy do more digging out and he would help me separate the seeds from the orange mess. He was a good helper!

I brought out wet and dry paper towels, and I'd often clean off my hands to try to get action shots of the boys working on the pumpkin. I was impressed when I asked Joshua "how do you think we spell Jack?" (We always call our carvings Jack O'Lantern.) We sounded it out and he said "J-A-C." That's not bad for how little he is! I also said that it's a long 'ca' sound, so we add the k for extra umph.

Caleb said he wanted to help, so he held the pumpkin steady for Daddy.

Soon enough, Jack was as clean on the inside as he was going to get! Daddy & I talked about carving the face, and then we asked the boys for input. What do their faces have on them? Joshua said "EYES!" and away Shawn went with cutting them out.

I told the boys they couldn't touch the pumpkin, Daddy, or the knife while he was carving. Oh, how tempting it was for them, I could tell. Joshua sat on my lap to watch, and Caleb stood on the chair waiting. I LOVED his expression in the picture below.

Here's Daddy pulling out the first triangle eye.

Then he started carving out the second eye:

Caleb was having fun playing outside!

 Here's Jack with two eyes. We asked the boys what else was on their face, and Joshua said a mouth. But, we asked him what was in between his eyes and mouth, and they both said "NOSE!"

Our neighbor called over the fence good morning to us and smiled at our little creation. He's so nice! Then he started his weed-whacking, and this was Joshua's facial expression when he said "On, no! Stop the noisy!" I couldn't help but grin and take a picture. The face lasted for all of three seconds maybe until he got interested in the carving again. Then he didn't notice the 'noisy' anymore.

Here's Jack with his nose in tact, but no mouth yet. 

Joshua showed us both his teeth to say how the pumpkin should look. Shawn said "yeah, teeth are hard to carve, buddy." Haaa!!!

Finally, Shawn was done carving his pumpkin, and I think Jack turned out well. I made Shawn hold him up and show him off for a picture.

Joshua was excited that the pumpkin was finished. Caleb was ready to play!

But, I snapped a few more pictures for fun before taking the seeds in and cleaning them off good. Then I boiled them (to make them crunchy), dried them off, and popped them in the oven when the boys napped. They are delicious!

I love this picture of Joshua with Jack. He thinks the carved pumpkin is cool, and he asked me where his candle is last night when we came home from Walmart and it was starting to get dark. It looks like I'll need to add one.

Caleb wouldn't hold still long enough to get a good 'posed' picture of Jack, but he did get face-to-face with him and start talking to him. It made me giggle.

Since it was a beautiful day, we ate our lunch on our back deck. It was simply left over spaghetti from the night before and I had also made strawberry shortcake, since strawberries were one of the items that Shawn picked up from the farmer's market. It was delicious! Caleb was so hungry by lunch time that he actually climbed into the seat himself and waited to be fed. Then he downed all the peas & carrots, most of the spaghetti noodles (that he wouldn't touch the night before) and a bunch of strawberries. Joshua also ate his spaghetti nicely both days. He told us that he doesn't like the meat in the sauce, but he likes the noodles. I'll take it! After playing some soccer - and Joshua LOVES to play goalie - and "chase," it was soon time for naps. Caleb went down first, while Joshua read his Mutt dog book outside with Daddy. Then the Bean went for a nap, too.

It was a gorgeous day, so when they woke up, I took them to the playground. We went to the store later that night, and we ate dinner and I bathed the kids before we tucked them into bed. They are precious little boys! Pumpkin carving, seed roasting, and fall are all fun times, in my opinion!