Pumpkins. . . (Warning: Scary image at the end!)

Carving pumpkins is messy and sticky and takes a great deal of patience. I usually put it off as long as possible even though the kids start begging for it as soon as fall rolls around. Friday was as good a day as any to start digging in:

I even let Gloria use a knife!! Yikes!!

Zach wanted to carve something intricate so we went to www.jackolantern.com and he found a scary skeleton pattern. It took a really long time to carve. He had to put the template over the pumpkin and poke tiny holes around the outline before using a paring knife to gently cut away the tiny chunks that would make the pattern:

Meanwhile, Gloria chopped away at her pumpkin and even had time to paint it all black:

The darkest room in our house is the bathroom so anytime we need to see something glow in the dark, that's where we gather. (It's usually pretty funny because the bathroom's not very big!) So, here is Zach's finished pumpkin, unlit and somewhat indiscernible:

Here it is, glowing with candle light and it creeped me out!!!:

I even considered not posting it on my "family friendly" blog but I just couldn't help myself- Zach did an amazing job of carving this thing even though it's very, very creepy. . .