Pumpkin Monsters!

Sunday morning, we took Joseph to a local pumpkin patch to find the perfect pumpkin. We made our way over to Jack Creek Farms after failing to find a way to get to our regular pumpkin farm. (Road construction.) Joseph ran from bin to bin looking at the pumpkins. Then he went to the patches and continued his search. He finally found one - already picked - and loaded it into his wagon. He decided that he'd rather climb in the wagon than pull it, so we took him for a ride to the animals and then the "steer" roping area. Joseph is more of a "let's ride the cow" than a "let's rope it" kinda guy. He had a blast sitting on what was, in essence, a painted sawhorse with a wooden longhorn head attached.

Side note: As glad as I was that it wasn't raining, the heat did get to me a bit. We'd put J in a long sleeved shirt, but by the time we loaded up to go home, we'd stripped him down to a T-shirt.

After we paid for the pumpkin (are they serious about those prices?!) we walked over to the hay stack to get a rare picture of Mommy and Joseph.

Note to self: Give Chad tutorial on operation of camera.

When I look at this picture, I have one thought. We seriously need some rain, and soon.

We weren't able to carve until Monday night. I'm so glad we decided to do them this year. Last year we painted small pumpkins and, since this year we had Mr. Potato Head style attachments, I didn't think we'd get around to carving. (I actually can't find a link to describe the pumpkin attachments, so I'll post a picture of the result.)

I placed wax paper on all the counters and pulled out large bowls to fill with pumpkin "guts". We gave Joseph a marker so he could draw his pumpkin's face while Becky got started on her pumpkin. One pumpkin was not enough for our Pumpkin Boy, so he moved on to Chad's. When we finally started the actual carving process, he was intrigued. Then came the time for removing the pumpkin guts.

I reached my hand in and pulled out a mass of seeds and pulp and encouraged Joseph to do the same. He lightly touched the inside and pulled his hand back out like it had been bitten.

"NO! Too dirty."

"It's not dirty, baby. It's fun!" I have to agree with him, though. Chad usually ends up cleaning out my pumpkin.

Joseph reached out his hand and made a couple of grunting noises. "Too far. Can't reach." Yeah. Right.

In the end, Chad had the enviable job of cleaning out Joseph and my pumpkins while we attached "faces" to the remaining pumpkin. We saved the seeds for roasting and settled down for the serious business of making faces. When we were done, we put them outside, complete with candles. Joseph jumped around excitedly jabbering about "pumpkin monsters". I think they look great. Maybe not as artistic as Rachel's ridiculously good renditions, but maybe a little scary?

Oh, and for the record, my pumpkin is the stoner on the left, Joseph's is in the middle and Becky's is on the right.