Every year since Mason was born (and even before that), we've carved pumpkins. I was actually just looking through past posts the other day for a different post and found all of our past pumpkin carvings. This year I had the delusional idea that Mason would be able to help. I figured, he's four now, he should be able to help, right? Wrong. It's not that things went terribly crazy or wrong, but let's just say, he's definitely not ready.
I took him to the store to pick out what "utensil" pack we would get. It was down to Paw Patrol or Finding Dory and he chose Dory. Solid decision. So we bought the pack of carving utensils and the stencils to make Finding Dory-like pumpkins and we were on our way home. I happened to be home with Mason on this particular day because he had an appointment in the morning and then ABA in the afternoon, so I just took the whole day off. I thought it would be a fun adventure for us to carve pumpkins together.
I thought I would carve the top off Mason's pumpkin and he would scoop out the seeds and I would paint mine with the kit that I got in the dollar section at Target. Easy peasy and fun. Well, for starters, Mason HATED sticking his hand in the pumpkin to get out the seeds. I mean, I guess I can't blame him because I don't love it either. I mean it's sticky and gooey. So he refused to do that. He just kept picking up the poker and poking holes in the pumpkin. Over and over and over. I eventually had to ask him to go play with his cars or watch his iPad while I finished so the pumpkin didn't have 100 little holes in it before I was done.
I finished his pumpkin and gave it a simple little smiling face. I was going to attempt one of the Dory designs but the pumpkin was pretty thick and I didn't think the little knives would work well and I didn't think the big knife would cut small enough for the design. I clearly didn't think things fully through when buying our pumpkins.
After I finished Mason's pumpkin, I started on mine. I figured, for $3, how hard could this kit be? Wrong again. The kit came with this stencil that you were suppose to trace with marker on to the pumpkin. First of all, the stencil didn't sit flat, so I had to cut it apart and tape it to the pumpkin in pieces. Second of all, the marker bled.
After I was done with the tracing, there was paint that I was supposed to go over the letters with and then sprinkle some glitter. The paint brush was too thick for the letters so I used an old make up brush that was more the correct size. After I painted the letters, I dumped some glitter and called it good.
After I was all done with both pumpkins, I wiped off the excess glitter and brought the pumpkins outside for a little photo op. Mason was so proud of the pumpkins and had no problem cheesin' for me...
...and then I let him take a couple pictures too. He insisted.
Overall, it was a fun afternoon even though it was a little frustrating and I said no probably 100 too many times. We both had a good time spending the day together and we now have a festive looking front porch. Next time I think I will stick to the stickered pumpkin for Mason (seen above - we did a couple weeks ago) and do the carving after he's already in bed :)
What kind of Fall/Halloween fun have you been up to?
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