Carving Jack-o'-Lanterns

After the girls got home from school, we FINALLY got around to carving pumpkins. We'd had them for a bit, but never found the time to carve them. The girls have never carved pumpkins before. Tom's always been busy with school, and I found it easier to paint them with the kids, so the girls were excited. We waited until Declan was down for his second nap, and then got started.

Here are the girls pumpkins they chose from the store.




With the pictures taken, it was time to dig in. Tom cut the tops, and we started. You can see another reason we haven't done this before . . . Tom is not a fan of the slime, so we were proud of him for stepping up and doing it despite his uneasiness.


I had the girls give it a try, but eventually it came down to Tom and I to clean them out.


Our nephew Ryan had chosen an intricate dragon design, had poked his holes using his design, and had been completely clueless once he took his design paper off and saw a billion holes scattered everywhere. Fortunately, Tom's an artist and was able to draw the design on the pumpkin over the holes using a sharpie.


Taylor snatched the camera at this point and caught me off guard.


We made sure to save some of the good stuff for later, which the girls thoroughly enjoyed . . .


and discarded the slimey stuff.


We kept all and roasted all of the seeds . . . from 5 pumpkins . . . yeah it was WAY too much, but they were tasty!


Finally, the pumpkins were ready for the carving to begin.


Although we did most of the carving, we let the girls help here and there.




Unfortunately, sharpie isn't permanent on pumpkin, so Tom had to redraw Ryan's dragon again.



Meanwhile, Madison worked hard on her Welcome pumpkin.


After a few hours (and then some for Ryan), the jack-o'-lanterns were done.


Shelby chose a dolphin swimming in the water . . . yeah, she definitely likes girly stuff.


Payden chose The Pumpkin King. Tom was proud of this choice.


Taylor chose her favorite dinosaur, a triceratops, which was fitting.


Oh, and while we were carving, the moon came out . . .


Hahaha!!!! Gotta love it! Anyways, we had fun, and the girls are so thrilled for Halloween to be here.