Patches, Carving, & All Other Things : "PUMPKIN"

I love carving pumpkins!

Everything about it... I love the slippery, slimy pumpkin guts, squishing them between my fingers and pulling the stringy stuff away from the inner cavity. I love the smell of pumpkins! It's kind of like play-doh. Not that it smells like play-doh, but it has the same effect on me as the soft clay: I can't resist sniffing and sniffing over again and again when I'm around it. The entire time we're cleaning and carving, I find myself leaning in for a closer whiff of that yummy pumpkin smell. This was also the first year I've been successful at toasting the pumpkin seeds. I did three flavors: salted, BBQ, and traditional (with Worcestershire Sauce). The BBQ was a total bust (gross!) but I devoured the salted and traditional seeds happily...forget being cautious about sodium levels here. They were DE-LISH! We carved 4 pumpkins, all picked from Pack's pumpkin patch during Wyatt's preschool outing. Here are some more pictures from our Pumpkin Adventures last week:

Halle took these of me.

This picture was my famous "sniffing" pose

after Halle told me to smell the pumpkin.

(How do you show yourself smelling for a still shot?????)

YES!!!! PUMPKIN GUTS!!!!

~

The boys are holding their Halloween cards that I'd
left out for them the night before. That was something fun.
I'd picked out a dollar item for each of the kids and put it
next to their breakfast for Halloween--Halle got
an orange & black hairbow, Wyatt got orange pumpkin socks,
and Carson got a small Elmo boardbook about pumpkins.
You'd have thought it was Christmas morning by their reactions!
I love having kids that express
themselves so openly...it makes life fun!
~

Here are our final creations. What do you think?
The bottom two were mine--it was fun drilling holes
into the one on the right. I felt very "Martha Stewart"!
The top left was Wyatt's design and the top right was Halle's.
I loved her unique idea of doing a music note!
~
Wyatt with two of his preschool buddies
(Red Power Ranger & Indiana Jones),
all dressed up from their class party
~

Pack's Pumpkin Patch...

Here's Wyatt and Carson sitting still for story time
The boys were so cute together!
I'd asked Wyatt to help keep an eye on Carson
and he took his brotherly duties very seriously.
They walked around holding hands the entire afternoon,
especially in the hay maze. I
love that they are such good friends!

(Carson pushed his head so far into the ghost-hole,

for a minute I was worried it would get stuck!)

~

Carson insisted on carrying his pumpkin himself,

barely making it to the wheelbarrow before nearly losing his grip!