Picking them. Posing with them. Carving them. We did it all.
Each of those activities were not necessarily all done together as a collective family unit. It seems that we are starting to branch off more and more these days -- splitting our time with different activities for the kids. James is too little to partake in the picking of pumpkins and definitely the carving of them. Samantha was at a friend's birthday party the day that Steve took the kids down the orchard to pick pumpkins and the girls were in school on the day that I chose to get a few impromptu pictures of the boys with one of them. Yes, the days are getting busy.
We didn't have a very good crop of pumpkins at the orchard this year; the summer was just too hot at the time that the seeds were planted. So, the grass was tall and not well-maintained down in the pumpkin field, but that didn't stop Sophia and Jack from finding some nice orange ones that were worthy of picking and being brought back to our house.
A little muddy, but perfectly-shaped with a beautiful stem.
What is it about this girl and her modeling poses? She was born for a life behind the camera.
And this boy? Well, he can win you over whenever he turns on his sweet smile.
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On a whim, I grabbed one of the pumpkins from outside one morning for Jimmy to be able to experience. Still wet with morning dew and a little cold, but he loved it.
Sometimes I wish that I could read their minds when they stare at each other like this.
Jimmy was the most interested in the stem. Such a fun texture for him.
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Carving pumpkins before Halloween. Don't let the lack of coats fool you. It was downright cold that late afternoon. The kids DID start out with coats on but opted to shed them when they got in the way of digging deep into the pumpkins for guts and seeds.
A good old-fashioned spoon always seems to work the best for us for cleaning out the insides. We then collect the wet, slimy mess and dump it in the woods for the deer.
Jack took his role very seriously.
Steve likes to go for efficiency and managed to "carve" several of the pumpkins using various drill bits. The kids were impressed with the mere minute that it took him to accomplish that.
The kids hands were cold and wet in no time, but they were troopers and kept on working. We even carved a few green ones for some variation.
So proud of his masterpiece.
In the past, we have always carved our pumpkins inside ... where it is warm. But, we opted to invite the neighbors over this year, set up a table in the driveway and let everyone get messy without a big clean-up. It was a great idea and it was a lot of fun. It was just cold. (Good thing Jimmy was napping inside this year!).
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