October 25, 2010

Jack-o-Lanterns

We finally had some time to carve pumpkins. I've realized that for kids, pumpkin carving is a lot of fun. For adults... maybe not so much. It's exhausting! It took us two hours to get all four of our pumpkins gutted and carved!
Actually, it was pretty fun. Hubby and I stipulated at the beginning that we wouldn't be doing anything too elaborate. No Dora (yes, one of them requested that), no cats, nothing but easy shapes. Each of the girls picked a pumpkin (we couldn't remember who picked which one at the pumpkin patch the week before) and gave us directions on the "shapes" they wanted. Sue Sue and I had fun making a "surprised" face. She also requested "star eyes." The other three girls stuck to circles, triangles and squares. The bonus? While Hubby and I did the knife work, the girls wore themselves out riding bikes and playing in our driveway.
Eventually I'll give them more opportunities to help with the carving, but for now they're happy just giving directions. Unfortunately, I forgot to buy votive candles, so our Jack-o-Lanterns have yet to light up. Here's our finished work:
 Spooky, huh?

9 comments:

Sadia said...

Cool! We've decided to use Lucas' light sticks instead of candles. We figure that the green glow will be fun, and the lack of fire can't be a bad thing.

I'm so impressed that you went with four pumpkins! We decided that two would be far too much for us!

Mrs. Werginz said...

They look great! I love the different size round eyes on the left and the star eyes! I enjoy gutting the pumpkin and the first few minutes of carving. By the end, I am over it and just carving simple shapes! :)

Suzy said...

Nice work! My favorite is the one with the eyes that are different sizes. :)

We're not doing anything Halloween again this year ... still think it's too early for the kids to enjoy it. And it's too much work to do just for the heck of it!

MaryAnne said...

These are cute! And you are a great sport to carve pumpkins with four 5yos.

Stephanie Barr said...

Nice designs.

Stephanie said...

Cute pumpkins :)

Renae said...

So cute! I love how they're all so different. We still have to carve our two. It was a lot of fun picking them out, but I'm not looking forward to the the carving.

Quadmama said...

I like the light sticks idea.
And, as Reanbean said... it was a lot of fun picking them. Carving them is just a lot of work!

MandyE (Twin Trials and Triumphs) said...

Great job with the "surprised" face! I always get a laugh out of seeing some families' pumpkins up close. You can see an elaborate crayon design behind the traditional triangle eyes and jagged mouths. You can tell some kid had really high aspirations! :) That's a great idea to limit your girls to requesting simple shapes. It still gives them ownership, but is manageable for Mom and Dad, too.

I actually really like using those pumpkin carving kits and doing a cool design...at least for one pumpkin. Now I feel like I have to do two...and there's a law of diminishing returns in my book. :)

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