Painting Pumpkins

We attempted to add painting pumpkins to our Halloween fun this year.  Gavin LOVED it...which is funny because he's usually not into the art projects I try.  Riley, on the other hand, wasn't a fan of painting at all!

She did, however, enjoy making a big mess in the 5 minutes or so that she had 

paint on her tray...

 Later in the week, we carved one of our pumpkins.  We waited til the last minute to get them done this year, and so I didn't carve both.  :(  Slacker mom!

Jack-o-lantern Fun!

Perhaps my favorite part of Halloween is the pumpkin carving.  It brings back so many memories...sitting on the kitchen floor with table clothes and trash bags to contain the mess, carving with my parents and sister.  For some reason, I can remember one particular Halloween with our puppy Bandit there, sticking his head in the pumpkins.  {I have no clue why that one sticks in my head considering the short time we actually had that dog.}  

My most favorite part of carving the pumpkins is digging out the guts....Jarrod thinks I'm crazy because it completely grosses him out, but I can't wait to stick my hand in there and grab the seeds.  Last year, Gavin begged for the Cars templates he saw at the store and we used the Mater stencil to carve a pretty cool pumpkin.  This year, we used another from the set, and with the help of a battery operated knife, we carved King!  It didn't turn out quite as well as Mater last year, but it was still fun.  We donated our other pumpkin to the preschool and Gavin's class decorated that one, so we only carved the one pumpkin this year.   

Gavin loved watching us get started, but quickly grew bored and kept asking if we were finished yet.  Riley was a perfect angel and sat in her bouncer watching the whole time.  I can't wait until the kids are old enough to carve with me.  I love creating these fun family memories together!

 

Pumpkin Carving!

To me, one of the best parts of fall is pumpkin carving.  I loooove carving pumpkins!  Jarrod will not put his hand inside the pumpkin, so it's my job to gut them.  Why I love sticking my hand in all that nasty junk I have no idea, but I do.  So I was super excited to carve our pumpkins yesterday and look forward to when Gavin is old enough to help us even more.

First, Daddy cut off the tops for me.  I was a bit disappointed in our pumpkins this year.  One was rotting before we even got around to carving them, so we were down to two.  Then, he cut the top off the first one, and it was so gross inside.  Brown, gooey, slimy...  Not the normal pumpkin guts.  Even I wouldn't put my hand in that one.  So, we were now left with just one pumpkin.  Fingers crossed it turned out ok for carving....

 And this is what was inside!  A little strange with the vines, but still perfect for gutting!

 Gavin, though interested, didn't want to put his hand inside.  But, this is the same kid that makes me wash his hands as soon as he's done eating because he doesn't like being sticky or messy, so I didn't really expect him to.  

 My Bug and pumpkin guts....I couldn't be happier!

 I wanted Gavin involved a bit, so I was putting the seeds on the table and asked him to scoop them into the bowl for me.

 Once the pumpkin was gutted, I got paint set up for Gavin to paint a little pumpkin, and Jarrod started poking holes for my template.  While at Hobby Lobby a month or so ago, Gavin saw Cars templates and wanted them.  I let him pick out the one he wanted me to carve, and of course, he picked the hardest one.  But, I won't lie, I secretly wanted to do the Mater one anyway.  :)

 Soon, both boys lost interest and went off to do their own thing while I finished carving the pumpkin!  Here's the finished project!

There he is, Mater!  You know, like Tow Mater, without the Tow!

Fun Times Friday

I love pumpkin carving time! Jarrod enjoys the carving, but hates gutting them. Call me strange, but I actually enjoy sticking my hand in all that goop :) So, earlier this week we carved pumpkins with Gavin. He's taking after daddy and wanted nothing to do with all the nastiness inside the pumpkin, but he did enjoy picking up the seeds and putting them in the bowl. We used the seeds later in the week for a craft. Here are some pictures we took. His final pumpkin, courtesy of mommy, was a Mickey Mouse pumpkin. I wanted to do something he might recognize, and it was the easiest choice :)