A Plethora of Pumpkins

We finally carved our pumpkins tonight. It was really really messy, but fun for all three of us.

I had originally put down a tablecloth to (hopefully) contain the mess, but decided to just mop afterwards instead. I'm still not sure if that was a good idea.

 

We ended up with more pumpkins than we planned on having this year, but that's okay. We only paid for two of them. One of the big pumpkins we got for free because we entered the community pumpkin carving contest. It is the pumpkin Lucy is sitting on in the above picture. It is a quirky pumpkin and has to lay on its side. We loved it.

 

She is dressed well for pumpkin carving. Jack-o-lantern shirt, coverless snappied prefold diaper, and purple socks.



Lucy got to play with this little pumpkin that the organic farm gave us for free. She loves it, but it is so ugly. It isn't even dirty in the picture. It just has a lovely rough, gray-brown quality to it that won't rinse off.

She didn't like touching the guts with her hands. I had to keep on helping her get it off because it was sticky and freaked her out a bit.

I used the Dremel to carve the contest pumpkin and wrote happy Halloween on it. I was covered with sticky pumpkin dust when I was done, but it was worth it. :)

The final product! We had to stick an LED light in it so it was bright enough to show through the pumpkin flesh.

Here are all the pumpkins on our steps! Our neighbors are from Iran and have only been in the US for a couple months now... I wonder what they'll think of them when they see them in the morning.

In the tall pumpkin and Lucy's little pumpkin we just drilled holes in them. Then we stuck clear green marbles in some of the holes. They look cooler in person than they do in the picture. :)

I just typed pumpkin about a hundred times. Sorry about that. Hope you are all enjoying the season!

Fall is finally here!

Fall is finally here in NC. The weather has cooled down significantly and even allows for a jacket on most days. I love it. The trees in my yard are losing all of their leaves and the days are shorter. I love this time of year. Summer just isn't my season.

So, I kind of of put off getting a pumpkin. I really wasn't feeling like getting one when it was still WA-summer-like temperatures outside.When it did, in fact, finally cool down, it was only a couple days before Halloween and the pumpkin selection was pretty limited. I wasn't going to go the whole pumpkin patch route all on my lonesome, so I went to the store. Walmart was out, but on my way home I stopped at the Food Lion. They had one of those huge cardboard boxes that grocery stores put pumpkins in. It was down to one layer, about seven pumpkins at the bottom of the box. My choice was easy, there was only one pumpkin left with a stem and luckily it wasn't discolored or deformed or rotting.

I don't know why it was among the last picked. Poor pumpkin. As I rolled my mini cart away from the pumpkin box, a family with kids approached it and whined with disappointment. So, I might have picked the last decent pumpkin... but according to my mother, this was a good thing. At least the children wouldn't fight over who got the good pumpkin.

Then I really waited until the last minute to carve it. It wasn't done until Halloween day. At 3 pm.

But I think it turned out nicely. :)

Aren't the miniature pumpkins cute? I cut the tops off of them and pushed a tea light into the middle. A toddler that trick-or-treated at my house was quite perplexed by them.

"What are those?" He said, and then after being told they were little pumpkins by his mother he was still confused, "Where are their faces?" Ha. Kids are so funny.

My pumpkin wasn't very Halloweenish, but I really liked how Washington state turned out. Accompanied by trees, of course.

And I had to hand out candy in my Halloween sweatshirt that my mother made me well over ten years ago, but who's counting?

I had a visit from a new plumbing company today. They were just assessing the plumbing situation, but it didn't seem like they are going to just put holes in the foundation outside anymore. They want to completely replace most of the plumbing and evidently that means cutting holes in the walls and fun stuff like that. Sounds exciting, no? Ha. This is a bummer for the owners, but hey this is one of the perks of being a renter. All I have to do is change light bulbs.

A Perfect Fall Day!

Today is the first day in a while that is hasn't rained. Not that I have anything against the rain. I love the rain, but it made for a perfect fall day of browsing through antique stores and making a trip to the pumpkin patch with Meagan.

My find of the day was this awesome scarf! It was only four dollars and I absolutely love it! I can't wait to wash it and start wearing it. :)


After shopping, Meagan convinced me to go to the pumpkin patch with her. It took A LOT of convincing on her part, but I'm glad we went! I wish I would have had my rain boots though; it was pretty muddy.


Meagan got a wheelbarrow, the shopping cart of the pumpkin patch. She even threw her purse in it to make searching easier. Haha.


She ended up getting a little white pumpkin too. I was loving all the cinderella pumpkins they had scattered around! I wish I would have gotten one, maybe later!


It was a successful trip!


Meagan was so kind to share her caramel corn while we loaded the pumpkins into my car. So yummy! :)


When we got them home Meagan started out with the big orange one...


And I gutted the little white one. Did you know that white pumpkins have green guts?


It is kind of gross...


While Meagan carved away, I picked the seed out of the bowl of guts. Then I used this recipe and got them into the oven. They made the house smell great!


Meagan's pumpkins were so adorable when she was done!


And the pumpkin seeds were delicious!


At the end of the night we set the pumpkins on the front steps.


And lit them up...

Beautiful!