Punkins

Last night we carved our pumpkins. It was something fun to do while Jim stayed at school until all hours of the night. This term has been a busy one for him. It will be really nice once we get to see each other a little more than just watching one another fall asleep on the couch.

Aeryn picked out her own pumpkin and when we went to carve them she asked why mine was so much bigger. When I said that she could have picked a larger one and could even carve the big one she said "no thanks" and then once again inquired as to why hers was smaller. Oh, children. I'm not the best at coming up with jack-o-lantern ideas so we sat the computer on the table next to us to browse. It took all of 4.35 seconds to find a Hello Kitty template she wanted and a face idea I was willing to modify. Then the de-gooping began.

I don't think anyone truly loves this part of the process.

Aeryn had no fun at all. Can't you tell? How about the orange pulp on her face from where she'd rest her cheek on the pumpkin while yanking out the goop? Cleaning out a pumpkin is a whole body experience.

After I helped her transfer the template to the pumpkin she did all the cutting herself. I've got to say that she was the most focused I've seen her on a project like this. Especially since it sometimes got challenging. The outlines were loosely followed, but it was enough that at the end of it she got really exited and said "It's even cuter than I thought!" Then she attacked it with a sharpie and was even happier.

Yes, mine is pretty plain. I'm sort of a traditionalist that way, or boring, I'm not too sure which :)

It was worth it to see how proud she was of the finished product. This cutie couldn't sit still she was so happy. Can you believe I didn't think to use the *real* camera to get a picture of this? So now all I have of the moment is a crappy phone picture taken in really bad lighting. It's still cute though.

So far we've attended two Halloween parties and I must say, not having to make a costume for her this year has made it so much more fun. Monday I spent the day with my friend Rileigh baking up some treats and we seriously had a blast. I think all holidays should involve silly creative time with friends. On a side note: I'm ridiculously giddy over my skeleton/chalk outline dead people cookies (and the Harry Potter ghost, "granite" headstones made out of fondant, and R's bloodshot eyeballs). I used these ABC cookie cutters and it was awesome to see people at the party really truly believe they had bites taken out of them. Next year maybe I'll make them look like zombies who have lost limbs. Oh, simple joys.