Pumpkin carving at our house is an event to be put off until the last possible moment, like the night before Halloween. Carve them even a week too early in this cold weather and their tops will have caved into their heads in a gruesome sort of way by Oct. 31, perhaps a desirable look when trying to create a creepy masterpiece.
Designing jack-o-lanterns with the kids (we vetoed any designs that were too fancy: “Google’s broken”).
Usually our jack-0-lantern designs are boring and benign, generic even. But this year I recalled Extreme Pumpkins, a pumpkin carving book that I wrote a blurb about back in my Calgary Herald brief-writing days.
Beware extreme pumpkins — they sometimes cannibalize one another.
We let our daughter design her own pumpkin, which we’ll call “Happy Pumpkin” because, compared to the other two, that’s what he is:
Meet Happy, Avery’s creation.
I was trying to carve a “catumpkin,” but the ears ended up looking like horns. Then Bennett declared, “He’s mad, Mommy!” and so I dubbed him “Angry Pumpkin:”
Meet one pissed off, anguish-ridden gourd.
Blake spent many more minutes on his creation, channelling a “drunkumpkin” at times. I thought the orange globe looked sick more than intoxicated and, thanks to the discarded seeds and pumpkin innards (mixed with coffee grounds), we came up with “Flu Pumpkin:”
Not sure why he threw up on the Globe and Mail? Must’ve been the headline about the Monster (storm).
We can only hope our children will not mimic his performance after eating too much candy.
What about you? Do you carve traditional pumpkins or pull out all the stops?
Drink - Play - Love 