Pumpkin Carving

When I was little, we carved pumpkins every year, at least I think we did. When I think about carving pumpkins, I have one memory that stands out... I think about my sister, my dad my uncle and I all on the back porch sitting at the picnic table. There were newspapers all over the floor and 2 giant pumpkins on the table. I don't have any idea why he was there that year, all I remember was being so excited that Ronnie was there and just hoping that he would help ME carve my pumpkin. I don't remember if he did or not but I do remember being happy that day.

This year, we carved pumpkins for the first time. I was all set to carve little triangle eyes, a matching nose & some sort of odd mouth. Then I saw my neighbors pumpkins...they had flags, spiders, cats, pirate ships...they were fantastic. I knew my face suddenly wasn't going to cut it! So the girls and I looked on line and found a design they liked and I thought I could handle. I told them I had never done this before but I'd give it my best shot. After a little modification here's how they came out:


The girls had a great time playing with the "pumpkin guts"! They wouldn't scoop them out of the pumpkins because they didn't want their hands to get messy. Once I put it in a bowl it was a different story. They played for hours with this mess. It only got better once they added nuts (acorns) to the mix. They were both sure that their "8 kids" would be very happy with the meals they were making. I don't think mine would have been :) :)

A word of caution, DO NOT toss everything in the dishwasher after carving a pumpkin. This is the one time you really need to rinse things off first and of course the one time I didn't!