Happy Halloween! The Jack-O-Lanterns of 2011

Happy Halloween!  Lars and Anders did some trick-or-treating to collect food for Loaves & Fishes today after church with their youth group, and then they rolled up their sleeves for some serious pumpkin carving with their daddy.  We did some internet research yesterday and found some great jack-o-lantern ideas, which I posted on that Pinterest thing here.  Because we were pressed for time, we shamelessly copied two of the pumpkins straight off the internet.  Only Lars's pumpkin is a completely original concept. 

Lars Carving his Pumpkin

We carve with drywall saws at our house.  Oh, and I use that "we" very loosely -- I haven't personally carved a pumpkin in years.  I like to draw the face on a pumpkin, and then hand it over to my handyman husband for the gut-scooping glory of the actual carving.  It's a joint effort -- like parenting.  Yeah.  Also, someone needs to have clean hands so she can photograph the activity for posterity!  You will be happy to know that, at the end of the carving party, everyone in my family still has all of their fingers firmly attached to their hands where they belong.

Anders Carving his Death Star Pumpkin

Once Anders saw the picture of a Star Wars Death Star pumpkin, his mind was made up.  It took him longer than anyone else, but he stuck with it until he had a Death Star pumpkin of his very own.

I found a picture of a cannibal pumpkin "eating" another, smaller pumpkin.  It was more interesting than an ordinary triangle-eyed, zigzag-mouthed Jack-O-Lantern, challenging, but achievable.  I drew the face free-hand with a Sharpie marker and then handed the pumpkin off to Bernie for execution.

See how much he enjoys carving pumpkins?  Who am I to deprive him of this joy?!

We had carefully selected a little baby orange pumpkin to be the "victim," and here he is, all carved and served up to the jaws of the big, mean pumpkin:

Unfortunately, this little baby pumpkin fell out of the other pumpkin's mouth and smashed on the driveway.  I had to go to three different grocery stores before I found a little green squash of the right size to sacrifice to our cannibal pumpkin.  Here's what we ended up with the second time around:

Here are the boys' finished pumpkins:

Anders' Death Star Pumpkin

Lars's Jack-O-Lantern

...And here they all are, hanging out together on the front steps, waiting for the trick-or-treaters to come tomorrow night!  I'll try to remember to take another picture right after we light them tomorrow.

I think I will also rearrange the pumpkins when Bernie isn't looking.  I'd rather group all of the pumpkins together on the right side of the steps.  There aren't that many of them and they look weak spread out like that.  Also, since we use candles, it's safer to keep all of the flaming pumpkins on one side so I can herd the little princesses and caped crusaders up and down the opposite side, away from the pumpkins. 

Happy Halloween, everyone!