Carving Pumpkins

Halloween fell on a Sunday this year, so we opted to carve pumpkins on Friday afternoon -- shortly after the kids got home from school.  While I was disappointed to learn that the school Halloween parties would end up being muted again this year due to COVID (no parents allowed to attend; no homemade treats could be supplied), I was really looking forward to the outdoor Halloween parade with all of the kids in costumes.  It would be Jimmy's first school parade and Sam was playing in the 8th grade band.  Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate and that, too, was canceled due to rain.

To curb any other disappointment, I made sure that the carving table was set up and snacks were made for the kids to be able to jump right in after unpacking their school bags.  The weekend was made even sweeter by the fact that it would be a 3-day weekend with Monday off school due to a scheduled Professional Development Day for the teachers.

Jimmy managed to choose the tallest pumpkin in the lot and found himself having to scoop out a lot of the innards ...

Jack went with a perfectly-round pumpkin and there was no shortage of seeds inside.

My soon-to-be-a-teenager, still happy to carve pumpkins with her siblings.

Sophia had her mind made up very early with her design this season.  She needed a LARGE pumpkin and a few props and she was one happy pumpkin-carver. 

The finished products:

Braces!!!  - to commemorate her first Halloween with braces on:

 

Jimmy had a little help with his, but was very confident in his design as he directed me:

Steve (with the most annoying moustache ever) kept his pumpkin plain and simple:

Sophia painted her small pumpkin first, added some glow-in-the-dark eyeballs, and some bony hands and it turned out just as she had pictured it.