So sometimes you have to carve pumpkins twice for Halloween and sometimes it might be because mommy made a mistake and forgot some basic laws of nature….sometimes.
Our first pumpkin carving attempt was on the 19th. We had been hiking that day and then decided to make it a family fun night. We had plenty of pumpkins from our two farm visits so we were more than set. I have no idea what happened to our pumpkin carving things so we just used kitchen knives and spoons which worked fine. Everyone chose a design and then we went to work. I did an extra pumpkin just because we had it and sometimes it just helps to have an extra one. After we were done while Clint and I cleaned up the pumpkin mess the kids took baths and threw on their PJs and we snuggled in on the couch and watched Charlie Brown Halloween about the Great Pumpkin.
So the mistake that I made was that I thought that I didn’t want to put the pumpkins outside because they get cold and wrinkly and after a few nights you can’t tell what they were originally carved to be and we had done such a good job of carving them that I wanted to preserve that. I decided instead to leave them inside by the fireplace and wait till a night or two before Halloween to put them out. Problem is that for the same reason that I don’t cut a piece of squash and leave it out on the counter for 4 days because it would mold and rot, surprise surprise the same thing happened to our pumpkins. On Tuesday Caedmon was examining the pumpkins and said “Mommy, I can’t get the lid off my pumpkin and they are all really black inside”. And yes they were nasty and molded and gross. So slight mom fail on that end.
Now to pumpkins part 2. The kids had just thrown their molded gross pumpkins in the field and we just figured we would be without pumpkins for Halloween which was fine. However at church on the Sunday before Halloween they had a ton of pumpkins and pumpkin carving kits left over from their fall festival. The children’s director stopped me and said “Take as many as you like”. Clint was gone so between getting all the kids and stuff outside and into the car we managed to get three pumpkins to the van as well. So Halloween afternoon before the neighborhood showed up for pre-trick or treat pizza we again carved pumpkins. We had fun and made messes again and laughed a lot. So I learned to not leave pumpkins post carving inside, but despite my mistake we still ended up with good Halloween pumpkins.
Hiking Mommy 