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.
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| Ready, set, carve! |
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| He's such a goof! |
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| And so is his big sister! |
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| Eric opted to scrap a design into his pumpkin instead of taking the more traditional carving approach |
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| Scoopin' out the guts |
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| Stringy gunk |
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| 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!
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| 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.
