the rest of the pumpkins

As mentioned in the previous post about Natalie's first pumpkin experience, she didn't jump in until she surveyed the scene to see what her siblings were doing.

Kylie whole-heartedly dug in!

Caleb grimaced, bringing back memories of his first pumpkin carving experience, but kept working.

Darcy ever so politely requested a spoon so she could daintily scoop out the slimy insides.

And Daniel...well in true form he gave his pumpkin 100% effort until the next thing caught his attention, talking all the way!

'wow guys, there's a lot of seeds in here!' 'do you think these seeds will make a pumpkin plant?' 'can we eat these seeds?' 'i'm hungry, can we eat something?' and on and on and on...

Natalie happily worked for a little while, but when her adored eldest sister finished up, she called upon her for help.  It was win/win!  Natalie, as an unsure rookie, got to avoid further slime and Kylie, a self-proclaimed pumpkin guts lover, got to do more.

Caleb and Darcy took a while between her tiny spoon and his dramatics.

And then Daniel and Natalie left us all speechless.  They became 'pumpkin lickers.'

he even went as far as to take a few nibbles ~ eeewww!

Then came them using finishing nails to punch the edges of their design in the pumpkin.  Some worked diligently ~ others not so much...

In the end I presided over bath/shower time and Ian finished up for us.

And then finally they were done and it was time to photo document the efforts of our labor.

and yes, i PROMISE that Daniel is wearing shorts under that pumpkin!

Not bad for an evening of work...

It was a great evening...even if we did get our pumpkins out of the giant cardboard box at Trader Joe's instead of a pumpkin patch.  Traditions are the BEST!