Carving Up Pumpkins

Last night, we had our annual pumpkin carving night. Not only did we do our normal activities such as digging out the pumpkin guts and carving out jack-o-lantern faces, but we added a few new things to the mix.

One of those new things was our new little addition :) Claire loved everything about pumpkin carving. She loved just looking at the pumpkins, but her favorite things was to try to eat the pumpkin!

Jocie's favorite part of pumpkin carving is pulling out all of the slimy guts.

Ella, on the other hand, does not like pulling out the guts...she is actually disgusted by it! I actually made her put her hand in there one time (this picture) and then her hand never again entered the pumpkin. She was so grossed out by this, that she made sure when I was done digging out her pumpkin that "I didn't touch her".

Claire did not mind touching the insides at all...she actually liked the feeling of it :)

But she still had to get a little taste :)

Jocie had the great idea to cut out stars all around her pumpkin. I loved this idea, and it looked especially cool lit up with candles (those stars are free hand!)

This year, Ella drew her face on with a marker all by herself, then I carved it out. She closely monitored my craving, and insisted that I don't go outside her lines (which would ruin her artistic vision). I think she did a wonderful job!

Claire's pumpkin turned out great too (with the help of her biggest sister, Joc).

Carl was busy picking out all of the pumpkin seeds he could find because he wanted to try to bake them into tasty treat...we will see how they turn out tonight! We also added cinnamon to the bottom of the pumpkins' caps, so when we lit the candles, the whole kitchen smelled like cinnamon (instead of raw pumpkin) YUM!

If you ask me, they all turned out awesome!! HAPPY HALLOWEEN from us to you!