Carving Pumpkins Mommy's Way

Well, as you might have already read, we grabbed our pumpkins for the year this past weekend, at the patch. So, the much anticipated carving had to happen before Friday, right? Tom has been dreading it, I don't really mind it, and the kids have been beside themselves, wondering when it would happen! Abby had the great idea that they could all wear their pumpkin shirts again

"I know, we tould all wear our Pumptin shirts and look Halloweeny!"

This afternoon we got home from school at 3:20, Harrison did his homework right away and was outside playing by 3:30. I called Tom to see if he wanted to participate in the annual carving or if I could go ahead and get started with out him. See, Tom dreads the carving. It brings out the best of his Type A personality. He gets all uptight, his face turns red, he starts to sweat as he takes the spoon and attempts to get the inside of the pumpkin clean enough to pass the white glove test. Usually be the time the first pumpkin is clean, the kids are crying and so over it, Tom is so frustrated he is bugged with everyone and at this point, it is just no fun for anyone. It only gets worse once the ruler comes out to draw the faces and then the total perfection begins.

I was hoping he would say to go ahead and start, and he did, I think I actually heard him jumping up and down in his cubicle at work! We had four pumpkins cleaned and carved in under an hour, not bad considering I had four kids helping me!

The lesson of the night: four kids are happy with pumpkins carved, they don't notice if the eyes are not perfectly even, if the candle is a bit off center in the middle, or if there is a spot near the face because the pumpkins were all attacked in hail storm. Chill out, relax and have fun with it! Soon enough they won't want to carve pumpkins because it won't be cool!