Jack-o-Lanterns

If you'd like a reminder of what pumpkin carving generally entails in this household refer to this post from 2012...

This year we put off carving so long that the beloved event actually happened last night...the night. Before. Halloween. And in case you're wondering why I'm in so many of the photos, it's because this year it went a little something like this...

We gathered pumpkins at the pumpkin patch early in October with the excitement and intent to carve them (excitement and intent totally mine... Joe hates pumpkin carving... refer to linked post from 2012.)

Left the pumpkins outside and nearly "forgot" about carving until the kids insisted we needed jack-o-lanterns.

Everyone picks out a pattern except Joe who insists that drawing with a pen/marker is way less messy and much, much easier (COP OUT!)

Joe turns on a movie to be festive which in turn sucks the kids' every ounce of attention, which means they are distracted and mommy gets angry because IF YOU DON'T START CARVING WE'LL BE HERE ALL NIGHT!!

Joe helps Aubrey quickly carve what is supposed to be Tinkerbell's profile into her pumpkin and brags that he is done.

I enjoy carving my pattern of choice for the year and then move on to "helping" Brendan who is both too engrossed in the movie and also insisting he do his carving (a cat's face) himself.

I persuade Brendan to let me "help" him and end up mostly taking over while Joe takes photos and smirks that "oh, by the way... did I mention I'm finished?"

Violet is upset that it seems like everyone is doing something she's not allowed to do and is not easily swayed by my attempt to make measuring cups look just as fun.

We finish... dear Lord we finally finish... and we later pose the pumpkins for the traditional photo-op, get the kids to bed and thank heaven we're done till next year.

It's no wonder the carving ritual got skipped last year as I was either on bed rest, having a baby, or taking care of a tiny newborn for the entire month of October!

And for your viewing pleasure.. the final results...