Jack-O-Lanterns

I usually buy a small pie pumpkin to use for a centerpiece in October, then we cook it and make pumpkin pancakes after Halloween. That's about it for pumpkins in our house ... until this year. We picked pumpkins in Virginia, and needed to turn them into jack-o-lanterns (after all, why else pick them). Fortunately we had a bit of practice first, as the kids carved pumpkins at a friend's birthday party on Sunday afternoon.

Yesterday after school, Simon and the kids took the pumpkins out front and sliced, scooped, drew, and carved away. I was working, but wandered out briefly to see how it was going and take a few pictures. I don't think Simon found it to be much fun -- after all, he had to clean up all the sticky, stringy insides. Apparently jack-o-lanterns weren't part of his childhood.


Here are the kids with the finished results. The top two pumpkins are from Sunday's party, and the bottom two are those we picked in VA. Norman's are on the left and Boo's are on the right. If we remember to put candles in them for Halloween, I'll try to get another picture then.