Scrub Pumpkin Carving

Well, mold had actually invaded both of the scrub pumpkins I bought to replace the ones stolen off my front porch. Nasty! We carved them nontheless. It was pretty fun. Both kids wanted a scary pumpkin face. I guess making growling noises to go with the pumpkins is more fun. We put in "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" to set the mood. I laid newspaper on the living room floor (our carpet is pretty well jacked anyway) and we set to carving the pumpkin. Now, if you've never seen the Great Pumpkin, let me tell you that it opens with a scene where there is newspaper laid out on the floor and two characters are carving a pumpkin. I swear Luke almost wet himself when he looked at our pumpkin laid out for carving and it looked just like the scene on the cartoon. To be honest, I had no idea that the movie even had such a scene, but I'm totally pumped that I did it because it validated my process of pumpkin carving in his mind.

We set to pulling out the seeds and carving the pumpkin - a rather grotesque project, I must admit. The kids were full of "Eewws!" and "Gross!" but it was pretty fun to watch them experience this fully for the first time. Both of them (but more so Evie) hovered over the knife as it went in and out of the pumpkin flesh, and I had to keep telling her to back up or she might get cut. Well, a few minutes later I sliced open my own flesh. I'm an idiot. Oh well, it wasn't too bad.

We finished up the pumpkin and this is what it looked like. Pretty impressive huh?














Okay, I'm kidding. That isn't really the pumpkin I carved. But, now that I look at it closely, it does look like the grinch! The picture below is actually the pumpkin I carved - rather crudely like a kid. That's okay, I've got more pumpkin carving experience than Chuck, whose parents deprived him by not celebrating Halloween. Poor kid - no sugar high on October 31 for his whole life. How crappy is that?














The first one on the right looks pretty scary - kudos to me. I designed the second one on the left (obviously, my give-a-shitter had given out by that time). I think it looks like Bert from Sesame Street - minus the unibrow. What do you think?








Oh, and here's a picture of the pumpkins the kids decorated with permanent markers last night.













They had fun. I had fun too. More pumpkin fun to come tomorrow. We'll see if anyone wants to steal my carved pumpkins off my front porch. I briefly considered booby-trapping them, but I think the crudely carved designs should keep the thieves away. Plus, I'm not sure how I could booby-trap a pumpkin - I wish I was that Data kid from the Goonies - I'm sure he'd have a great idea.