Part II - Pumpkin Carving

On Friday evening, it was time to carve our pumpkins. Hayden had helped last year, but didn't seem to remember at all. We talked about how we would put faces on our pumpkins and turn them into jack-0-lanterns. And when I asked her if she wanted a happy or sad pumpkin, we decided on one happy and one sad pumpkin.

At the beginning, Hayden was very excited about the pumpkins.

We brought them inside, wiped them down a little, changed into short sleeves and then set to work. Hayden wasn't too keen on helping me pull out the "goo" inside the pumpkin. She'd pick up individual seeds I dropped to put them in the seed bucket (we were going to roast them), but she didn't want to reach inside. She finally consented to reach inside with a spoon. And she did ask if she could taste it. (I swear, she'll eat anything when we're in the middle of the "process." She's less adventurous, though still a pretty good eater, when we're actually at the dinner table!)
She did help me get some of the goo out and then we talked about what shapes for the face. She picked squares for the eyes and a circle for the nose for the sad pumpkin. And then she lost interest and decided to color with markers at the kitchen table. Oh well, probably improved my efficiency anyway.

So we got the pumpkins carved - one happy, one sad. And even put a candle inside each.

Of course, we did the obligatory poses with them the next day with Hayden in her pumpkin shirt. I'm not sure why she felt the need to put her arm around them but it made me laugh to see her do that. We even managed to get our littlest pumpkin in the picture!