Carving Pumpkins

After we picked up our pumpkins at the Country Mercantile Harvest Festival it was time for a family pumpkin carving event. I honestly don't remember the last time I carved pumpkins and Nate figured it'd been years for him. So we armed ourselves with knives, garbage cans, and spoons and began to see how much of a mess we could make.

Nate begins cutting into the pumpkin while Abby helps (using a safer salad knife).

"On 1, 2, 3...what's inside?"

"What's that?!"

"Kinda gross, Dad. Not sure I want to over there."

"Hmm...maybe I can hep Dad out a bit."

Break time before carving pumpkin #2.

Our bumpy pumpkin just waiting to be hollowed out.

 

Carving our first pumpkin in years.

My Abby helps to put the tops on the pumpkins.

Our final masterpieces!

A more festive looking front porch. 

Our two pumpkins couldn't have been more different. The smooth outside of the first one had the stringiest insides I've ever seen. Imagine spaghetti squash all on the inside. No matter how many times we scraped it we couldn't get a smooth edge. The pumpkin with the bumpier outside was as smooth as could be on the inside. We wondered if one was bred to look nice but had the outcome of a nastier inside whereas the other was bred for flavor and so it didn't look as pretty? No clue but it's a nice idea!

A few days later (after I'd picked up some votive candles at the store) we went out to see what they looked like in the dark.

Nate adding a light to Pumpkin #1.

And adding a light to Pumpkin #2 with Abby doing a great job supervising.

Closing the lids.

Our jack-o-lanterns! Nate did a great job carving them. He's officially our expert pumpkin carver from here until eternity! (I really, really dislike touching the pumpkin guts...ewww.)