Pumpkin Picking

Last year, we were preparing to travel to China when Halloween rolled around.  This year, we're preparing for our move.  Poor Halloween - it's kind of gotten lost in life the last two years.  Hopefully next year we'll do better. At least they all have costumes for the big day.

On Friday, we took the kids to the farm stand down the road from us. 

They were all allowed to pick one tiny gourd (which they can't keep their hands off of )

and one regular pumpkin, which turned out to be a really difficult decision.

In the end, we all left happy and ready to carve.

I helped Liam a lot this year.  He is not a fan of the inner goodness that is pumpkin seeds, so I cleaned it out.  He made the design and I carved it while he drew a face on his gourd.

There are lots of things that I miss as the kids get older and are able to do more and more on their own with less and less help. There are benefits to them getting older though.  Like being able to carve their own pumpkins while Mom fools around with the different effects on the camera.

Micah designed his whole pumpkin and carved his whole pumpkin.  He chose to carve out the teeth instead of the mouth, which initially he thought was a mistake and instead turned into a really cool effect.

As for Vivi?  Well, the intent was for her to paint her pumpkin this year since she's only two, but trying to get two pumpkins cleaned out and carved turned out to be enough for one night.  So she was a great observer and loved watching the boys make their masterpieces - while Daddy read her "Pete the Cat at the Beach" and "Ladybug Girl and Bumblebee Boy".  Repeatedly.

Oh, and she also had some fun in the bathtub.

Maybe we're in the crazy Halloween spirit a little bit.