Pumpkin Picking and Carving

Last Saturday, we ventured to our usual place, Styer Orchard, to ride the hay-filled trailer out to the farm fields to pick our pumpkins. We love doing this every year. It didn't take long for all of us to pick out the perfect pumpkin. Now, what will we carve on them?

 Squeeze those cheeks Miss Kendall.

 Brooklyn doing her happy dance cause she thought she'd found the perfect one.

 Ella looks pretty happy with her selection.

 Kendall thought the pumpkins were so heavy. She walked around the field trying to pick them all up.

 Brooklyn loved the fact that her pumpkin was very unique with all of it's bumps.

Since it's been a busy week, and I didn't want the pumpkins to spoil or get eaten by the squirrels, I decided to wait until tonight to carve our pumpkins. Once Kendall woke up from her nap, though, we had to hurry before "the first storm of it's kind"... "Frankenstorm"hit our area.

Ella had already drawn pictures of what everyone should carve on their pumpkin. Ella and Brooklyn stuck to those original plans, which were a rabbit and a lion. However the rest of us did not. I ended up just carving triangles around mine (a lot easier to do with a knife than polkadots, like I'd planned), Ryan made a smiley face on his, and I did stripes on Kendall. Sorry Ella.

It's funny how the girls just do not like touching the slime inside the pumpkins, despite the fact that they have no problem playing with worms from the garden. Ella did better this year than in the past, but it still wasn't her favorite thing to do. She did, however, use a knife to cut out all of the details on her "rabbit pumpkin." Brooklyn, on the other hand, supervised Ryan's work while he cut.

Now the pumpkins are sitting on our front porch waiting to be blown away by the hurricane/Caribbean/Arctic storm that's brewing overhead. I hope they survive.

 This may have been Kendall's first time inside a pumpkin. I think she likes it, what do you think?

 Brooklyn doesn't seem to mind the slim as long as she can use a spoon.

 Ewwww, gross!

 The last time Ryan handled a sharp knife he nearly cut off his thumb.

 Hmmm, are seven year olds allowed to play with knives? She did such a great job carving hers... and without cutting off any fingers. Good work Ella!

 Kendall thought the pumpkins were a bit stinky, so she thought she'd plug Ryan's nose for him.

 Nice looking "lion" there Brooklyn. Love the twig mane.

 My generic, triangle pumpkin. I just wasn't in the creative, pumpkin carving mood, I guess.

 Kendall didn't care much about her pumpkin, but was very helpful when it came to collecting sticks for Ella and Brooklyn's pumpkins.

 Ella's rabbit-faced pumpkin. Very creative.