Pumpkin Carving

I know this is a little late, but I am still playing catch up with getting all of our trip photos online as well so things are in a bit of a jumbled mess.

Seeing that Halloween isn't really celebrated here, we have typically endeavored to do our own little family activities. Since last year's pumpkin carving was a lovely success we decided to give it another go this year. The day started off heading to market to pick out a pumpkin.

Milayla has been quite in love with this puzzle for the last few weeks and trying to get her out the door without it was an interesting feat. We probably would have let her take it if she would have been able to hold it while wearing her gloves.

Once bundled up and out the door, it was off to market. (check out Milayla's wonderful smile in the photo below. It's her most recent smile and we love it!)

 Despite the weather being a bit chilly (we nearly ran to market just for the sake of warming up) the sun was shining and we had gorgeous blue skies. It really couldn't get much better for end-of-October weather.

BRIGHT!

There was no shortage of squashes but pumpkins seemed to be in a strange minority since the last time we were there. We ended up finding one, smallish pumpkin and headed back for home.

Once home, Jason got the table ready while Atticus set to work trying to find some inspiration for our pumpkin. He consulted a very reputable source :) .

Then it was time for Mommy and Milayla to draw on the face.

Then the boys happily went to work cutting open the pumpkin...

scooping out the insides...

(they certainly enjoyed themselves.)

And while Jason took over for the cutting out, Atticus eagerly snuck nibbles of raw pumpkin while Milayla and I snapped away with the camera. 

And in no time, the pumpkin was finished! (there are certainly some advantages to picking a smaller pumpkin)

 We headed into Atticus' room to light it for the first time as it was still extremely bright out. The kids could not wait to see it lit up.

 TADA! Did we do a good job matching the inspiration from the book?

After we finished ooing and awing, Atticus gave his best attempt at blowing out the candle before he had a little fatherly assistance.

 It was sure a fun activity and we displayed our pumpkin proudly until he started to go the way that all jack-o-lanterns go. He at least made it to Halloween Day for our little get together with friends (more on that later).

Hope everyone had a great Halloween!