Pumpkin carving

We finally carved our pumpkins tonight. We normally carve them for family home evening on the Monday night closest to Halloween, but we completely forgot to do them this Monday, and last night I was at a primary girls activity day so tonight it was--3 nights before Halloween. I have to say, the older I get, the less fun pumpkin carving gets. It felt a whole lot more like work than play tonight. Maybe it's the fact that Jeff and I each have to basically do the kids' pumpkins for them. Maybe it's the MESS that has to be cleaned up. Maybe it was the 12 push ups I randomly did this morning that made my arms all weak and wobbly when I tried stabbing a knife into a hard pumpkin. I think it's all of the above. Plus, everything is harder after 5pm with kids on a weeknight. 

Jeff and I nobly set aside our various forms of fatigue and managed to whip out four pumpkin faces in an hour. They weren't the most detailed of designs, but they still glow with a candle inside. Jay and Rose helped scoop out the slimy seeds and guts with grimaces. Then they turned the rest over to their tired parents. I have a friend whose family only carves ONE pumpkin per year: each family member adds a feature to the same pumpkin till everyone has had a turn. As much as I love a porch full of orange glowing pumpkins, I kind of want to adopt that one-pumpkin tradition next year...

They both gave their pumpkins lots of "freckles" with the pointy tool (aka Jay and Rose, pumpkin slayers) Also: white pumpkins are apparently orange inside. Cool! Jay and Rose got their pumpkins from Grama Leslie and Grampa Dan's garden this  year. We bought the other three small one-dollar ones at Bill's as a token of thanks for letting us take darling baby pictures in their pumpkin patch.

This little punkin-belly skipped a nap today and went to bed early tonight, sleeping soundly through all of our pumpkin carving carnage.

The big pumpkins' candles got snuffed somehow before I took this picture, and it was drizzly-wet outside so we left them dark on our doorstep.

Orange is such a festive fall color!