As I am sure you have already guessed by now, this weekend we carved our pumpkins.  It was really an impromptu carving party which I’ve decided might be the best way to do it in the future.

I was sitting on the deck late Saturday afternoon, listening to Edie read aloud when Ken randomly walks by and asks if I would like for him to build fire.  Silly question.  My husband knows that if I ever turn down a chance to relax by the fire, then call the guys in Roswell because aliens have taken over my body and possessed my brain.  In my world, fires/fireplaces rank right up there with snow.  I’m not sure if Julie Andrews included this in her list of favorite things, but it’s definitely in mine.

So he starts gathering wood and twigs as Edie and I are finishing up her reading, and it occurs to me–we’ve got several hours to kill.  It’s a nice night, and now there’s a fire to sit by.  Sounds like perfect time for pumpkin carving if you ask me.

Here we are removing the pumpkin guts.  Roark was hiding behind his daddy for this part because pumpkin guts are “yuck” according to him.  I always thought little boys enjoyed yucky things, but not my little guy.  He wanted no part of it.

It wasn’t until Ken brought out a flashlight that Roark came near the table.  Then he had a job to do, and he was all about it.

Last year I bought one of those pumpkin carving kits on the Clearance table at Michael’s.  I will never again carve a pumpkin without one of these kits.  Edie essentially carved the pumpkin on the left with minimal assistance from me.  And yes, she’s five.  And before you get high and mighty about my child being given a sharp object, she wasn’t unsupervised…she just wouldn’t let me help.

Before we got started, I printed off several templates from the Internet and let the kids choose which design they liked best.   When I selected the kitty cat face, I really expected Edie to jump at that one because it looked similar to Hello Kitty, but to my surprise, it was Roark that wanted the kitty cat…because it wasn’t “scary like the others.”  He’s secure in his manhood and hasn’t regretted his choice for one second.