Thursday, November 7, 2013

Pumpkin Carving 2013

Pumpkin Carving 2013 was a bit of a rushed event in our household.  With Halloween falling on Thursday this year, we felt that carving pumpkins on the previous weekend would have led to very sad looking jack-o-lanterns by Halloween so we planned to carve pumpkins on the night before Halloween.  That meant adding a pretty substantial task to our already hectic nights with two exhausted parents after a full day at work coming home to feed the kids dinner, clean out and carve pumpkins, give the kids baths, and get them in the bed at a decent hour.  In retrospect, I don't think it really mattered what the pumpkins looked like on Halloween night as we were out trick-or-treating all night and really didn't enjoy them being lit up so I think next time we'll just go ahead and do them on the weekend before to save ourselves a little sanity and just make for a more enjoyable experience.  Lessons learned!  Needless to say, it was a very late night for mom and dad!

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So pumpkin carving, of course, started with an almost naked toddler on the table cleaning out messy pumpkin guts.

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Evan attempted to help with his little scooper.  He is not a fan of getting his hands dirty. 

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But this guy is a pro!

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"Woo hoo!"

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Brody had his cleaned out in no time! 

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And then Evan couldn't be outdone by little brother. 

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Daddy opted for a more simple creation from the old carving book.  Evan wanted a skeleton so they did this skeleton face.  It wasn't my favorite design, but this year needed to be simpler. 

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Mommy's task was to carve Mattie's name into her pumpkin. 

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Daddy finished up his pumpkin and lit it up before taking the kids to get baths while Mommy finished.  

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Mommy added Mattie's little feet to the pumpkin. 

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All lit up.

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I got a little carried away on the "e" and in trying to "fix" it, it got a little too big.  *Sigh* 

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Brody showing off his pumpkin before going to bed. 
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9 comments:

  1. Your boys are so funny! Brody seemed to really enjoy digging into that pumpkin. =) I love how Evan couldn't be out done. We have a similiar dynamic at our house. I LOVE the Mattie pumpkin. I think you did an awesome job on it!!!

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    1. Oh yes, the sibling rivalry and competitiveness has begun! Mostly, it is just Evan being "jealous" of the attention Brody gets...he just doesn't remember all the attention he got for 4 years before Brody arrived! *Sigh*

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  2. Your family is precious, and your pumpkins are cute! I love that Brody got "down and dirty" with the carving process. Boys just love to get dirty, don't they?

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    1. Oh yes, he's a down and dirty little boy! Haha! And let's talk about where you've been! I'm so glad to see you back! :-)

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  3. They look great...we have never carved a pumpkin with Hadley. Ever. Shame on me. Next year will be the year!

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    1. Oh, I don't blame you. It makes me more than slightly nervous to use sharp knives and tools within any close proximity of little fingers. We are very careful, but you know how quick two year old's can be!

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  4. I love it that you fret about things like the timing of the carving too. It's just one of our many similarities!

    Did you free hand Mattie's pumpkin? Because that is impressive if you did! It is such a sweet idea, and you executed it so perfectly.

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  5. My mother in law said she saw something about putting vasoline on them to help keep them longer. I'm not sure that's inside as well..... but something we should look into!

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  6. I think all your pumpkins look great, especially Mattie's. Also, we are joining you on the carving the weekend before plan. This year was too crazy! And I absolutely love the picture of Brody swinging the pumpkin innards around -- too funny!!!

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