Thursday, October 20, 2011

Pumpkin Fun

In their four and six years, my kids have never carved a pumpkin.  They've painted them, drawn on them, and decorated them in other ways, but we've never carved one before.  Come to find out, Trace has never carved one before either, so this was a first for our family.  We all had a blast!

     These first two pictures are the pumpkins the kids did themselves, with sharpies.  This one is Jack's, and this pumpkin came out of our garden!  Jack made it scary with silver sharpie.



This is Caroline's, and it's intended to be cute.  I think she succeeded! 


These are the bouquets the kids have been picking with fall flowers and leaves.  Aren't they sweet?  One has been added every day this week.  The little perfectly round pumpkin in the middle came from our garden too, and we're convinced that it's the cutest pumpkin ever--but we might have a little gardener's pride.

Here is Caroline scooping out the innards of her pumpkin.  She didn't love doing it like I thought she would--she said it felt like spider webs.  I told her it was more like spaghetti, so then she was willing to help.




Trace used the big knife and cut the pumpkins open.  I guess I have these two pictures in the wrong order.
Caroline took this picture of Jack and I working on his spider pumpkin.
Jack worked hard on this pumpkin.  We printed a spider template from online, traced it, and then carefully cut it.  He and I worked together, and our hands were tired by the end!
In this picture he's showing the scary drawings he did on this lid of his pumpkin.  There's a spider and a few jack-o-lanterns.
Trace carved Caroline's pumpkin, with her input.  She had chosen a large pumpkin, and then she wanted it carved into a kitty cat.  That was a little complicated for a four year old, but she was willing to watch Daddy work on it.
Trace working hard.  I think his hands got tired too!
Posing for me with their pumpkin.  Cute!
While Trace and Caroline were working on the cat, Jack turned his pumpkin around and drew his own face and then carved it entirely himself.  Here's his proud smile for a job well done.  Now he's got a reversible pumpkin: spider/jack-o-lantern.
Jack's pumpkin face.
Two lit pumpkins sitting on the front porch.
Putting in the candles was the best part--both kiddos had a giant grin when they saw these faces smiling at them!  It was great fun for all of us!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, great job! We got a couple of pumpkins this week, so we'll probably do some carving soon too. I'm guessing Maia won't like it cuz she generally doesn't like things all over her hands (she likes having a napkin at dinner to wipe her hands on). But she may like it. We'll see!

Jo Miller said...

Great job
Fike family!
Jack your spider is a little scary, I like the other face on yours much better. it is friendly and happy. Nice kitty Caroline and great work Trace, that's a lot of carving. I especially like the pumpkin that you grew in your garden - nice shape. Thanks for the picture of them with the candles inside.
love you all, Grandma Jo

katie said...

Makes me want to go carve some pumpkins myself with three little girls! How do you keep the squirrels from eating them, though? I can't believe Trace had never carved one!

akamilby said...

Hmmm, the squirrels eat them? Our squirrels are not as tame as yours--they don't come on the front porch much. But I wouldn't be surprised if a raccoon got into one!