Carving Pumpkins

We had so much fun making our jack-o-lanterns this year.  Last year we painted them and had the scariest pumpkins on Preakness Place! Ooooooooh. 

What to do this year?

Painting was still on the list.  Number one priority if you asked Anabella.

I had another idea, too. I picked up some Mr. Potato Head superhero pumpkin kits on clearance last season, and they looked like fun, so I was excited to try them.  Not that I didn't LOVE our spooky pumpkins last year; believe me, they had some character. But, I was excited for the pumpkins to have even more character this year.  To reflect the maturing artistic talents of our 3.5 year olds.

We did this on a weeknight, so we ordered pizza so I wouldn't have to worry with cooking and clean-up. (ha- if you think there was no clean-up, think again! Next year I need to do a better job of preparing the surfaces (top and bottom) for this artistic endeavor. Who knew? ha!)

Let the transformation begin:

Daniel was very excited about the cape, so he put that on first. I was impressed that he figured out to attach it- he found the correct part and everything, then stuck it right into the stem. The actual pieces that stuck into the pumpkin were a little hard for them to stick in, so we helped by creating little holes with a knife.

Is that a knife he's holding?
Oh my.  Turns out, they did a little "carving" of their own. As you can see in the video below, Dan was a pretty good little carver.
 

Anabella added eyes, a nose, ears and a mouth before requesting to stop and paint instead. She is such a little budding artist- loves, loves, loves to paint!

I love watching her expressions.

Our paint is getting low, so she was happy to use the actual paint containers instead of having to dip her brush in paint in an egg carton, which is what we usually do. I forgot to put on aprons and everything! Talk about being caught up in the moment. Good thing it was washable paint.  

Is that Dan's ear?
Silly boy

We knew we wouldn't be lighting our jack-o-lanterns, but wanted them to have the experience of pulling out all those yucky seeds.

Meanwhile, Anabella painted away....

Dan likes to paint, too.
He left his facial features on and added some color to them.

TaDa!
Now does that say, Happy Halloween, or what?!