[Countdown to Halloween] Carving Pumpkins!

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

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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8 comments:

  1. Cam had the same reaction to pumpkin guts as Mason. Ha ha! Silly boys. His pumpkin's face is cute. I love it. Yours is super fun. Annoying that it turned out harder than it should have though.

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  2. He hated it but he did it! My girls have yet to touch the stuff :P. I think your pumpkin turned out so cute, even if it was a bit tricky. Great job team :D!

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  3. I still love your pumpkin, and I couldn't even tell that it was not perfect. I like the sticker idea...I loathe pumpkin carving, like LOATHE it. Hopefully my dad will come over and do it with the kids...he likes it way more than me and totally gets into it. :) Did you do anything to your pumpkins to make them last until Halloween? We always try to do ours the day before because they seem to go bad in a day or two...

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  4. ha, you get these fun ideas in your mind and then half the time they blow up in your face. Holidays with little kids I guess. I wonder if the window where they have fun and can really help is super small? Then they become jaded too cool tweens and teens and don't care about the fun family activities, and now I shall cry. Anyway...I love your trick or treat pumpkin even if it wasn't so simple to make. We still have carving ahead, we do it on Halloween because the bugs eat the dang thing in one night if we try any earlier. I wonder if Aria will want to help scoop seeds this year. I certainly don't lol.

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  5. Hahaha! I love when we have all these ideas planned out in our heads - and how well it's all going to go - and then the wheels slowly start to come off. This sounds exactly like something that would happen here. We're carving pumpkins tonight, and I'm guessing it will be interesting. I'm actually going to take the pumpkin guts out well before we start the project so no one (Marcus) loses interest before we even begin.
    And, I LOVE that Mason wanted to take pictures, and you got in on them, too!!

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  6. Hahaha! I loved this post. You have this idea in your mind of how things will go with kids, and then NOPE! LOL :D I still love the pumpkins though- the sticker idea is a good one. I think we're going to attempt carving this weekend. We'll see how it goes...

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  7. First off, Kinsey's not ready for the whole carving business either!!! Those guts are a whole other level of sensory that she just cant stand lol. And not to sound like a helicopter mom or anything but I would never trust her with a knife, so I get to do it all (and I actually really do enjoy it! So win-win!) I love how that stencil turned out even if it was a hassle :)

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  8. So cute!! They carved a pumpkin in Wyatt's class and he gagged when he tried to pull out the "guts"! Hahaha! His teacher was like, nevermind! I love the stencil look!

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