Pumpkin carving 2009

So we decided that tonight was our night to carve pumpkins before Halloween. We already had the pumpkins and I had been thinking about the designs I wanted to do for the kids. Aidan had picked out a 'bumpy' pumpkin with little to no stem. It was what he wanted and he was really excited when he found it. Asher's pumpkin was from a couple of weeks ago that I think Aidan had picked out since Asher was enchanted by the little pumpkins.

Last night I was searching around the internet to find some pumpkin ideas. When I saw Aidans pumpkin I thought it looked like a large cucumber, and reminded me of Larry the Cucumber from Veggie Tales. I mentioned to Aidan that I could carve his pumpkin to look like Larry, since he has been into Veggie Tales lately. He was down. So back to last night, I found these Mickey and Minnie Mouse templates and thought that they could be a good idea. Aidan and Asher were going to be Mickey and Minnie for Halloween. Aidan and Asher were already in bed so I went in there to ask him if he wanted Mickey instead. I had put them to bed no more than 15 minutes earlier and when I went in there he was out like a light. I tried to wake him up to ask him and got him awake enough to say yes to Mickey. So I was all set to todays carving.

Well as this afternoon rolled around Aidan mentioned that he was excited about Larry the Cucumber for his pumpkin. I reminded him about our sleepy conversation the night before, but Tiff said that he has changed his mind back to Larry that day.

We sat down in the kitchen floor with a plastic drop 'cloth' to start our pumpkins. Asher was interested in helping scoop out the guts. Aidan tried once and didn't think about doing it again. Asher did end up eating some of the pumpkin off of the 'cap' of her pumpkin. One of those things that we never had to worry about Aidan doing.

After the pumpkins were emptied we taped the templates on them and starting poking holes to trace the lines. Yes that's the big secret. So now you can do this at home. My intention this year was to use my Craftsman Rotary Tool (dremel). I thought that it would make it easier to do better designs. It helped a little. I didn't even use it on Ashers. So I ended up in the garage tonight using the dremel on the pumpkins. As I am typing this I have a fine layer on pumpkin on my face. I did wear safety glasses though.
I finally finished Asher's after she had gone to bed so she didn't get a picture with her pumpkin, but did see it while it was in the process.

Aidan and his Larry the Cucumber pumpkin.

Asher's Minnie Mouse.