Jack-O-Lanterns

Since the pumpkins started showing up around here, Erin has loved them. She has tried to pick up the big ones, and carted the little ones all over the yard. She says "punkins" so cute! She points them out all over the place and gets really excited at the grocery stores when they have big displays out front in the parking lot. We went to a craft store and they had a huge foam pumpkin right in front of the door, and the whole time she was in there she kept saying "big punkin!" It was so funny.
I was hoping she would love the whole carving thing, so here's the experience! This is Erin's first time carving pumpkins, she was too little last year, so we didn't even do it. Let me first say that it has been a while since I carved pumpkins; I'm sadly out of practice. Here are some lessons I had to re-learn. Lesson number one: don't buy cheap safety knives at the dollar store. It's worth it to get good ones. Lesson number 2: let the pumpkins warm up inside for a while. They are cold. Lesson number 3: remember to cut the top big enough for your hand and the tools. Duh.


Erin wasted no time in getting right in there. She's like that. She just grabbed the knife, but I wasn't worried, cuz they are safety knives, right? We'll see.

She said "oooh" when Tyson pulled the guts out. I love it.

She smiled really big when he first put the guts in her hand, then she dropped it immediately. I think she didn't like how cold and slimy it was. Funny!

She also helped me scoop some guts out.

So you were all thinking it would be Erin who learned lesson number one, right? Nope. It was me. Trust me to cut myself with a "safety" knife. The problem was they were so cheap that the blade broke off the handle, causing me to cut myself on the jagged snapping point. Of course. I broke three of the four that I had. Needless to say, after we were done, I threw the last one away, too. This is a picture of my owie. Erin is not really as concerned about it as she appears, she's trying to see Lightning Mcqueen on my bandaid.

She got really excited when we lit the candle! Sorry the picture is fuzzy, but it was cute.

Here are the finished "jacks"! We tried to get her to say "jackolantern" but it was too many syllables. She only does one. Cute!