One of my favorite things in the whole wide world is pumpkin carving. I loved carving pumpkins as a kid, and I really love carving them now with the little ones that I live with. Carving pumpkins is always a super fun experience, especially as the children get older and want more complex designs. We got our pumpkins from Cammas Hall, where the kids got to pick out whatever pumpkin they wanted. Amelia ended up with the largest, which was white, Kai had a very classic looking pumpkin, and Robin had a slightly smaller one. Dann and I shared a red pumpkin that was quite flat, almost as if it had been squished down, which is what we liked about it.
Before we got to actually carve our pumpkins, we had our yearly Halloween Party. The kids invite all of their friends over for a night of costumes, games, and candy. We bought each person that attended their own medium sized pumpkin to paint – which the kids enjoyed decorating. Amelia smothered hers with glow in the dark paint, where as Kai and Robin seemed to just paint drips on theirs, but had a good time.
When it came to pumpkin carving, there was a bit more planning in the mix. I cut off the top of each one and let the kids start digging out the seeds. Once they had carved out all their seeds, which did take quite some time on the bigger pumpkins, we went to work drawing out their designs. I always have the kids draw out what they want using a marker before we carve. Kai went with a classic Spooky Pumpkin design, and then lots of holes to let light in because he knows how pumpkins light up. Amelia and Robin went a pretty surprising route – they actually copied the faces off of the Halloween Balloons I had got for our party. Amelia copied the Ghost face and Robin copied the Pumpkin face. They drew these out and I cut them with a knife, using some of their help.
Once the kid’s pumpkins were cut, I used some white spirit on a paper towel to wipe away any of the excess marker around the outside, and that did the trick. Dann and I had the fun idea to carve a pumpkin up on the pumpkin, which was a fun idea. It also was quite easy to carve, and with Dann’s arm out of action broken, it just made sense. We placed all of our pumpkins out in our porch nook, so that they can look out for our neighbours as they walk down our road. I am really happy with how these all came out and it was a really fun family tradition!
This post is apart of our Blogtober series, all with a Halloween or Autumn theme.
We don’t really celebrate Halloween here but a few years ago one of our stores had pumpkins and it was fun to carve them up but because its so hot here it only lasted a few days!
oh wow, I can imagine in the heat they’d die!
Oh wow they did so well with their pumpkins! This is cute and I need to go to a pumpkin patch!
You really should, it’s so fun!