Pumpkin Face

We had a blast last year carving Caleb's pumpkin, and I was excited to see what his reaction would be this time around. I doubted that he'd remember anything about making a jack o'latern, which made this year a bit like doing it for the first time again.

Before cutting into the pumpkin though, we had some fun with some silly face pieces that my dad had found for the kids when we went to the farmer's market. They work pretty much the same way the pieces in a Mr. Potato Head set do; you just poke them into the pumpkin's "face." Some of the pieces were a little hard to stick in for a two-year-old, but with help from Daddy and NaNa, Caleb came up with great creations. After making a face on one side, we had to flip it around so he could make another one. After that, he stuck some silly teeth my mom brought into the top of the head, making it look somewhat like a turkey. 

Hadley loved getting in on the pumpkin decorating. Since she couldn't put the pieces in herself, she just tasted them a little bit until her older brother scolded her and Mommy took them away. She approved of the silly faces. Mommy approved of the fact that it was mess free and that it made her children smile.

Afterwards, it was time to take off the face pieces and start carving away. Things went downhill for awhile at this point. Unlike last year when Caleb was happily slinging pumpkin guts, this time he did not like getting his hands dirty. Every so often, he would run over to Granny and ask her to wipe his hands clean. Growing up, I never really liked the scooping part of the pumpkin carving, but he's not a finicky kid about having dirty hands like I was so his reaction really surprised me.

Someone got the idea to try using a spoon to help scoop, which made Caleb happier. Then, my mom opened up this battery controlled power scoop thing that Granny brought. He was really starting to get into it once he got his hands on that!

Dave carved out a mouth and let Caleb help put some teeth in it. I laughed and said that I thought this pumpkin needed braces. Despite that Caleb has no idea what braces are, he repeated, "He needs braces."

Cutting out the eyes and nose was up Caleb's alley too. Once they pushed the extra pieces out of the face though, Caleb thought it was a puzzle and kept wanting to stick them back in the holes.

Here was our finished jack o'latern (who needs braces and has his eyes and nose filled back in). At least he is unique! :)