Pumpkin Carving 2020

With Halloween on the horizon, we thought this weekend was the perfect time to carve our pumpkins and show a little holiday spirit. 

Sadly, due to the pandemic, the family-run pumpkin patch we have gone to for years and year and years isn't open this year. (Oh COVID, you just keep giving and giving, don't you??) Instead, we picked up pumpkins at a local grocery store and called it good.

In years past, we've had squirrels see our pumpkins as a buffet. My plan to thwart them was to keep the pumpkins in the basement until we were ready to carve them. A few days ago, Finn was nowhere to be seen... after a few moments of hunting, I found him gnawing on one of the pumpkins.
Animals = 1, Me = 0

Eric was the first to figure out his pumpkin design, and what a clever design he came up with! He went into our back yard, came back inside with some sticks, and went to work making arms for his pumpkin creations. How clever is he?!?! I didn't get any shots of him mid-creation, but do have a photo of his final results. 

Eric's pumpkin creation

I was a bit stumped on what I wanted my pumpkin's look and feel to be. I figured EVERYONE would have a mask-themed pumpkin, so didn't want to do that. I almost made a "VOTE" pumpkin, but then started to think that's what I did before the last election. Instead, I turned to my good ol' buddy Pinterest and swiped an idea from a post I saw there. When I saw the photo, I knew it was what I wanted to do ... carving and sewing all in one. How me! 

My creepy, yet crafty pumpkin

As the kids have grown up, they've taken on more and more ownership of their pumpkin designs and the actual creation. We still worry about potentially lost fingers, so closely watch them, but they are now old enough to do most/all of the work on their own. Spread you wings, little ones!! (PSA: Just keep the sharp knives pointed away from them. Please... for the love of all that's holy! We really don't want any pumpkin carving-related ER trips. Now or ever. But I digress....)

After much contemplation, Conor decided on a mad scientist design for his pumpkin. (Note: his pumpkin scientist's forehead "scar" is courtesy of Finn... please see the gnawing reference above.) Conor cleverly incorporated our Harry Potter glasses and mad scientist wig in his final design. 

Sketching out the design

Gooey!

Keep the sharp parts pointed away from you, bud!

The proud artist

The wig completes the creation

Annika's pumpkin was partially inspired by the Illuminati coupled with a cartoon character named Bob (I think). She incorporated a bit of herself in the design by including outlines of her hands right in the pumpkin. She worked incredibly hard on her pumpkin and completed the entire process on her own. Her creative process was "let's see how it goes", with very little preparatory sketching. She had a vision in her head and went for it. 

Scoop, scoop, scoop

The artist hard at work

Adding details

Ta da!!

Seeing everyone's final pumpkins was a lot of fun, but what really made the day special was hearing the kids reminisce about Halloweens gone by. The giggled about some of their earliest pumpkin-carving memories and the silly things they remember doing. There were countless "OH YEAH! I remember that" moments. 2020 has been a pretty odd year, to say the least, but having days like Sunday so full of family fun, tradition, and smiles made things feel much more normal.  

Pumpkin Carving 2019

Carving pumpkins when you live in a wet climate requires great calculations. No, not in terms of design, but in terms of timing. Carve too soon, and you wind up with a gloppy/moldy mess on your porch before Halloween rolls around. And no one finds that appealing, I have to guess.

We tucked our pumpkins away in the cool basement in hope it would prolong their pre-carving lives. For the most part, it worked. Conor's pumpkin proved to be a bit less cooperative than those belonging to the rest of us. When he attempted to pick up his pumpkin so he could bring it upstairs, the stem and some of the surrounding pumpkin flesh went with Conor ... the rest stayed on the floor. Whoops! (Conor and I made an emergency trip to QFC so he could pick out another one, so all was not lost!)

The kids, Eric, and I cleared off the kitchen table, covered it with plastic bags, and quickly got started on our gourd masterpieces. 

Ready, set, carve!

He's such a goof!

And so is his big sister!

Eric opted to scrap a design into his pumpkin instead of taking the more traditional carving approach

Scoopin' out the guts

Stringy gunk

Eric's spider web design 

This was the first year that the kids had complete control over their carving. We didn't hold their hands as they took blade to pumpkin. As a mom, it was a bit nerve wracking, I have to admit! I'm also proud to report that everyone completed the project with the same number of fingers they started with and no one required stitches. WIN!

Conor's final product

To make the experience THAT much better, we put some dry ice in the kids' pumpkins because, well, it's cool!! All of us giggled and clapped as the vapor poured out of the pumpkins. 

Happy Halloween, everyone! Be safe, have fun, and enjoy the sugar rush.

Family Pumpkin Carving

Last night, we covered the kitchen table with plastic garbage bags, grabbed some knives and spoons, and collected our pumpkins from the front porch for our annual family pumpkin carving event.

Now, when I was a kid, we grabbed our pumpkins, knives, and spoons. We carved triangle eyes, a triangle nose, and a zig-zag mouth and called it good. Fast forward many years to when I married an artistic man and we had kids. Now, pumpkin carving requires a sketch pad and a lot more pre-planning than I ever imagined. That said, our pumpkins looks WAY better than any of my pre-Eric pumpkins every did.

We had lots of fun making grossed out sounds as we scooped out the pumpkin's insides and sang along with "Monster Mash" on our Echo/Alexa. Once the pumpkins were hollowed out, Eric sat down with each kiddo to sketch out his/her desired pumpkin face/expression. (Meanwhile, I went to the computer and printed up the Seahawks "12" logo and used a pin to transfer the numbers to my pumpkin. I figured the Hawks deserved a nod after their nail-biting win a few hours before!)

I have to give Eric immeasurable props for how he handles this process with the kids. They often want VERY elaborate things that simply aren't possible ... due to physics or the tools we have on hand. He very gently guides them toward a more practical design while keeping the essence of their ideas in mind and always remaining positive and having them talk through the evolution of the design. There are many moments that I've stood there and thought "Dang! He is such a great dad." and watching him figure out pumpkin faces with the kids was yet another example of when I had that exact thought. Conor definitely wanted jagged teeth in his pumpkin. Annika HAD to have a tongue sticking out. Conor wanted angry eyebrows. Annika wanted vampire fangs. Leave it to Eric to figure out how to incorporate their ideas and transfer them onto a pumpkin. :)

Let the pumpkin carving begin!

First cuts

Conor takes after Eric ... lots of sketches!

Annika and Eric co-piloting the knife process

Conor's topless pumpkin

Scoopin' out the guts

Planning time!

More sketching!

Annika inspecting her pumpkin's insides

Getting out the last seed stragglers 

Conor's pumpkin mid-carved

ROAR!!!!

BLEHHHHHH!

After many, many, many knife cuts and pottery tool scrapes later, the kids' pumpkins were done. We all agreed they looked amazing and would make our porch very "Halloweeny".  The icing on the (pumpkin) cake was the LED pumpkin lights that I picked up at the dollar store earlier in the day worked like a charm!! 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!! BOOO!

Halloween 2016 Recap

Happy November!!

With today being the first day of November, that means yesterday was HALLOWEEN!!! I'm pretty sure that our kids were almost excited for Halloween as they will be for Christmas. Their energy was effervescent and, at times, insanely loud. (Go figure!)

Pumpkin Report
We started out the festivities on Sunday, when we carved our pumpkins. Eric and Annika methodically laid out the plans for her pumpkin, which Conor and I more "winged it" for his. The kids had a great time "ick'ing" and "ewww'ing" as they scooped out the pumpkin guts. Really, it doesn't get more fun that that, does it??

See the planning going on here??

Costume Report
Annika decided she wanted to be a gum ball machine for Halloween, and I loved the idea. It took a LOT of hot glue sticks and pom pom balls, but turned out really cute and came together rather easily. She was thrilled with the final result.

Then, there was Conor's costume. He decided that he wanted to be a mummy. "Easy!" I thought. Boy, was I ever wrong. His costume turned into a MUCH bigger project than I anticipated. That said, after way more time than I thought, much more swearing than I'm proud to report, and a few "gotta re-engineer this project again" planning sessions, his costume turned out quite well and I was (mostly) happy with the final product.

The kids wore their costumes to school, but found both to be quite warm and opted to change into the play clothes I stuffed into their backpack "just in case". I'm not at all surprised by their wardrobe swaps ... Conor was wearing a sweatsuit plus three yards of muslin and Annika was wearing about 5 pounds of pom pom balls made out of synthetic materials. ... not exactly "breathable" clothing options. Both kids had a marvelous time at their class Halloween parties and even more fun at the Extended Care program's party. Annika was even the one who gave the pinata its deathblow.

Sugar Report
After the stress of Conor's mummy costume, I needed to slow down and take a few deep breaths ... basically, return to my center. So, I opted to decorate some Halloween cookies. It was lovely to sit at our table with my piping bags of orange, white, and black royal icing and just be zen with some cookies. It put a smile on my face. (The glass of wine didn't hurt, either!)

 After dinner, it was time to re-costume our troops and head out for the one night of year we condone begging from our neighbors. Bring on the trick-or-treating!!

Because of how hot (and restrictive) his mummy costume was, Conor opted to wear a hand-me-down karate gi from his big cousin Robert. Annika returned to being a gum ball machine, but with the added bonus of a "Gumballs 25¢" sign attached to her headband. Eric put on some spooky face paint. I found some glow-in-the-dark glasses in our Halloween box, so wore those.

We, by chance, met up with some neighbors who have kids our kiddos know, so we went around the neighborhood as a bit of a pack. The kids had a great time running around with each other and experiencing Halloween as a bigger group. We've gone trick-or-treating with this same group of neighbors before, so it has become a bit of a tradition to wander around together.

Karate boy

Gumball girl

"Look! My candy bag looks like a beard!"

 The only glitch of the night was when Conor didn't see a decorative rock at the corner of someone's lawn and took a bit of a nose dive (chin dive, to be accurate) onto the sidewalk. From the sound of the fall, Eric and I were concerned he'd split open his chin. Fortunately, no major damage ... just a little road rash on his chin accompanied by a scraped palm and finger.

With that, we say goodbye to October (boo!) and hello to November and all its Thanksgiving glory (gobble, gobble!!).