It's been just over a week since we selected our pumpkins at the farm, but we just couldn't find the right time to do the dirty work of carving them until now. After Carl and I brought home Henry's larch we all sat down around the kitchen table, drew out pointy knives, saws, and other instruments of terror, and began the unholy makeovers of our pumpkins.
Lilly wasn't amused. In fact, she was downright unhappy. I'm not sure if it was too close to nap time or too far from nap time or she felt for her gourdy relatives, but as we cut into her pumpkin she decided she'd have no more of it. Luckily, she found sanctuary in the pantry. We had only to periodically ask, "Where's my Lilly?" and she was happy. Amy handled her carving.
Clara showed the same twisted joy as last year while scooping out her pumpkin. She even decided to try an uncooked pumpkin seed. Needless to say, that didn't go over well. We had the package of templates and tools and Clara found a great design with a cat, a pumpkin, and a spider. Three our of four on the difficulty scale, in fact. Then she went to play with Lilly in the pantry. I finished up her carving.
Henry was happy to be passed around as we rolled up our sleeves and did the dirty work. He seemed fascinated by the orange and Tokul munching on anything she could get her paws on, but he's generally fascinated these days. It must be nice to be a baby. Nana did his carving.
Amy and I also did pumpkins ourselves. Amy was wise and stuck with a level one design while I went free-style trying to be clever. As usual, Amy was far more successful.
In the end, however, we wound up with a collection of pumpkins that look cool sitting in the near total darkness of our front patio. Too bad there won't be any trick-or-treaters to see them. Maybe we'll have to take them with us...
