Pumpkin Carving

We have to keep to our tradition of carving pumpkins. Our next door neighbors, the Cooks gave the kids each a pumpkin this year and so we didn't even have to go our and buy some. Matt and I decided that we would end up carving them anyways, so we didn't get one for ourselves this year. We decided that it would be a fun family home evening on Monday, the 22nd. The kids invited Claire, Avery, and Brittany over to join us and we had a good time cleaning out the pumpkins. The kids ended up playing and the adults did the carving, but it was still a fun tradition to keep. Parker wanted the grim reaper, Paige chose a mummy, Paxten got a traditional jack-o-lantern, and Claire chose a bat. They all turned out great and look awesome all lit up in the dark. Now we just have to keep the squirrels aways for a few days so we can enjoy them!

Pumpkin Carving

 

We can't let Halloween go by without carving some pumpkins. Parker kept bugging me every time we went to that store about getting a pumpkin to carve. Both Parker and Paige were really excited about it this year. We decided to carve them on a Saturday after Matt and Parker went golfing. Paige and I (and Paxten) went and got the pumpkins, picking out a special sized one for each member of the family. When the time came to carve, the kids had picked out designs that they wanted their pumpkin carved into and neither of them could physically carve their own pumpkin. Parker at least helped by gutting his pumpkin as well as mine. Paige just mostly watched while I carved hers and my own. Matt ended up doing Parker's and his. So after almost 2 hours of carving my hand was sore and I was tired of carving pumpkins. Poor Paxten didn't even end up getting a little face out of his pumpkin. Maybe next year. He didn't care, he was asleep most of the time! So here are our creations this year. Paige wanted the monster, Parker wanted the skeleton face, I did the haunted house, and Matt carved out Big Dad. It was going to say Big Daddy, but his letters got too big! It is a fun tradition to spend the evening together and to get into the spirit of Halloween.

Pumpkin Carving

We have made pumpkin carving a tradition at our house and Parker has sure remembered it. As soon as there were pumpkins out at the store he asked if we could buy some and take them home and carve them. I held out as long as I could and finally bought some last week so that we could do them on family night. As they sat in the kitchen waiting to be carved, Parker was eager with anticipation asking a few times a day when we would finally carve them. So he was so very excited when we told him we were going to do pumpkins on Tuesday night (we were at the carnival on Monday). We got out all the necessart tools and began our activity. Parker was very into the whole idea and cleaned his pumpkin out all by himself. Paige on the other hand wanted nothing to do with touching the inside of her pumpkin. She just kept on saying "its uki" (its Yucky) over and over again. So I did nost of her pumpkin for her before starting on my own. Matt helped Parker out on his since he picked a pirate to cut out. After Matt had spent 20 minutes tracing the pirate on he didin't want Parker to mess it up, so he ended up carving most of Parker's. I found a fun witch that I decided to carve on my pumpkin and I think she turned out quite well. Matt decided to drill a bunch of holes all over in his (I think he had had enough after carving one pumpkin already) They all turned out great and we had fun time together doing them. But I do have to mention that I hesitated to put them outside because of our squirrel problem. But I ended up putting them out and spraying them with cayenne pepper hoping that would keep the pesky animals away. But they have eaten my witch's nose off, so she no longer looks like a witch, but all the other pumpkins have remained untouched. So it may have worked after all, my pumpkin with just had to be one they tried out first!!

Pumpkin Carving

I hesitated to carve pumpkins at all this year because the squirrels on our block are such a nuisance. I felt like we planted a garden just to feed the squirrels since we didn't get any corn, any pumpkins of the 5 we grew, and no butternut squash. So I was pretty upset that the squirrels benefited from our hard work and we didn't get to reap the rewards, so I was hesitant to carve pumpkins with the kids because I didn't want to spend all the time and money just to have them out one day before the squirrels destroy them. But I decided that I just had to do a pumpkin carving night, it has become a tradition in out little family and Parker was really excited about it. So Parker went to the store with Matt and picked out 4 pumpkins for out family. I called my parents to see if they wanted to participate, they said they would come over and just watch. (we were bored on a Friday night, and so were they) So when Matt returned with a daddy, a mommy, a kid size, and a baby pumpkin we were all set and ready to go. My dad ended up helping Parker and my mom helped Paige, who could care less what was going on. Matt and I were able to carve our own and before we knew it we had a family of pumpkins. I decided to go off the normal and I carved out a pumpkin that said "BOO" it turned out rather cute and I think I got the award for most detailed and longest time taken. I finished way after everyone else. Parker was anxious for me to finish so we could light them all and see them together. Finally I finished and we had 4 very cute Jack-o-Lanterns. Now we are hoping the squirrels don't devour them before we can really enjoy them. Anyone got any ideas how to keep the squirrels away??

Pumpkin Patch

Okay so there have been a few fun things that we have been up to lately so I have a few posts to do this afternoon. The first is from Wed. when my mom and me and the kids went to a u-pick pumpkin patch. We thought Parker would love to pick out a pumpkin that was just his size. I asked him and he said "it's Parker Size". He was all about picking one his size, he didn't want to get a big one or a baby one, he just wanted one his size. We also found one that was sissy's size. While we were there they had his little maze from straw bales for the little kids to go thru. Parker loved playing in there. I was all about him playing in there it was FREE!!! Not too many fun things in life are free!!! I also got a few pictures of the kids on straw bales in front of a scarecrow. We had a fun time and enjoyed one of the fall activities around the area.