Family Carving

My grandma (Roman and Blaise's great-grandmother!) came to visit us from Portland over the weekend. I was excited, since I haven't seen her since May.

It was cold and rainy during the weekend, making outdoor activities out of the question.

What a gorgeous view from the front door!

So, for a family activity on Sunday, my dad decided that we should all carve pumpkins. My dad and grandma picked up the pumpkins on Saturday, and we all met on Sunday for the carving!

Everyone, hard at work on their pumpkins

Papa, lending a helping hand

Christian and Brooks, elbow deep in pulp

Keith, working on his masterpiece

David, just getting started

Okay, first a little background on this. Keith and I first started carving pumpkins (seriously carving pumpkins) about 4 years ago. Before this, there may have been a little, silly, buck-toothed jack-o-lantern sitting on the porch. But after Roman was born, and was old enough to notice, we have taken to visiting a pumpkin patch each year (will post when that happens). And then, we carve!

Over the years, the designs have become more elaborate. Keith has become the master carver. He is amazingly artistic and talented when it comes to carving pumpkins. I never let him get away with saying he isn't artistic anymore. He gets more adventurous every year. (although the best templates have been removed from the internet for copy right purposes which is absolutely ridiculous. Don't get me started.)

We did try to keep it simple with the family. After all, we were outnumbered 3 to 1 with children under 10.

No one said it was going be be clean!
After all, we cleaned out at least 8 pumpkins!

Everyone made their own designs, as well, which made this extra unique, challenging, and fun! We decided that the little kids "sponsored" a pumpkin, since they told me what they wanted on their pumpkin, I drew the design, and then cut it out. But of course, it is their pumpkin.

Here is the finished work for the evening!

Galilee's Pumpkin: Haunted house
This was as scary as I could make it.

Keith thinks my "haunted houses" look like "Who houses"
(from the Grinch who stole Christmas)


Gwendolyn's Pumpkin: Haunted House
She also wanted a haunted house.
I'm not sure the effect is any scarier here.


Grace's Pumpkin: A Fairy
I was rather proud of how this turned out.


Ariana's Pumpkin: A ballerina

I had no hand in the rest of the designs. I give all credit to the appropriate "artists."

Trelawney's Pumpkin: A Fairy
This was Trelawney's original design.
She drew the picture, and helped carve it out
(with only minimal help!)


Mercy's Pumpkin: Les Miserables
Mercy developed this stencil from one of
her own drawings!
(Okay, she did require just a little help from Keith on the carving)

I will admit that the best pumpkin of the evening does not go to Keith (although this is the first year Keith has drawn his own stencil.) This pumpkin also belongs to Roman, since he sat and watched Keith draw the design, and then punched all the transfer holes.

Keith's and Roman's Pumpkin: Batman, Dark Knight
The letters didn't show up as much as we would have liked.
Maybe we'll try again.


Brooks' Pumpkin: The Grim Reaper
This was very impressive.
Admittedly, he did "steal" the picture from one of
Christian's original drawings,
Brooks did make the stencil and carve it single-handedly.


Christian's Pumpkin: Dragon
I think this won for the evening.
Christian is definitely the most artistic in our family.
This dragon is his own design, and the execution of the
carving is fantastic!

Great fun. I will add more pictures after we have our family pumpkin patch trip. I can't promise that we will top what has already been done.

But we love a dare!