Pumpkin Carving Fun

This year we didn't make it to a pumpkin patch as a family. Between soccer, going out of town, our Fall Festival at school, and just an all around busy schedule, we never made it a priority so it sort of got left out. Shame on us... I know. We still had lots of fun with our pumpkins though! (Which I purchased at a farmer's market while the boys waited in the car. Shame again.)

Terrell got off work early yesterday afternoon so him and Garrison got started on our pumpkins. One pumpkin is for my class at school so they went ahead and cleaned that one out for me before starting on our family pumpkin. Austin was napping when they got started so we didn't get any pictures of cleaning out the pumpkins. Garrison was a close observer and helped scoop with a spoon. Little man decided not to put his hands in.

Before we carved our pumpkin, I let Garrison hammer golf tees into the back of it (an idea I found on icanteachmychild.com) and he loved it! I had to penetrate the golf tees into the pumpkin for him and after that he was ready to hammer. We hammered, counted, removed tees, put them back, etc. It was a big hit! And Austin got to have some fun one-on-one play time outside with daddy while big brother was occupied and busy at work hammering.

After supper we got ready to carve our pumpkin. Garrison was totally into it. He was curious and helpful and all about the process. Austin was a little curious and showed some interest too. If he got bored with it, he moved onto something else before coming back to check on things with daddy and Garrison.

Everything was going great and as expected until Austin started getting tired and ill and ready to be held and Garrison had trouble pulling out all the golf tees from the back of the pumpkin. Before we knew it both boys were crying and things had gone south fast. All I could think was "Memories! We're making memories!" Ha! It was crazy. It didn't last too long though. I held Austin and we helped Garrison get all the golf tees out and finally the boys were able to see the finished product. The Selph Family Jack-O-Lantern! And Garrison was so smitten, he gave it a kiss. It was precious. Then he encouraged Austin to come give it a hug. Too sweet. Our new, pet jack-o-lantern. =)

Then we took our jack-o-lantern outside with the fake candle inside and got one good picture. We'll take it!  

I'm thankful we enjoyed another year of pumpkin carving fun and memories... with never a dull moment!

Pumpkin Carving 2010
Pumpkin Carving 2011