My Pumpkins with their Pumpkins

Drew with his Spiderman Pumpkin, carved and cleaned out by Mommy

 Pumpkin carving used to be something I loved to do and looked forward to the day when I would be able to do it with my children.  I thought it would be all fun and a little bit messy.  We would all sit at the table and I would patiently help each of the children with their own pumpkin.  Well, then I had kids and realized that these kinds of crafty projects with a bunch of young children is actually full of me saying, "Hold on a minute," and, "You have to wait your turn," until even I don't believe I'm actually going to get around to helping them.  We start this at 4pm and guess what I am having to do simultaneously?  If you said, "Cook dinner," you'd be right.  If you said, "Nurse the baby," you'd also be right.

So you can see how this wasn't what I pictured ten years ago when I was carving a pumpkin for my front door step alone.  Drew immediately decided it was too dirty in that pumpkin to help pull seeds and pulp out.  Surprise!  Surprise!  (My tough as nails son who falls out of windows and down a flight of stairs with barely a cry cannot stand dirt on his hands or clothes.)  Hannah wanted help in designing her pumpkin carving, but didn't like any of my ideas.  Genna knew just what she wanted, but drew the picture way too small to actually carve it.  Isaac needed help carving.  Drew also needed me to just do the whole thing since he is not allowed to tough sharp things.  Judah was just hungry and wanted attention, because did I mention he is my only jealous of my or Brian's attention child?

Genna did a Eucharistic pumpkin.

Brian was out of town and so that added an element of craziness to the whole thing, but, as you can see, the pumpkins got carved in the end.  We almost made it with no injuries, but at the last moment Genna was using my linoleum cutter to write her name and slashed her arm with it.  It took a very neat little piece out of her arm, but nothing a little band-aid wouldn't fix.  She is one of my two tough ones, so she handled it calmly.

Hannah made stripes.

Isaac made Mary's heart, pierced by a sword.

This was on Wednesday, and as I write this on Sunday the pumpkins have already been banished to the front porch due to mold.  The squirrels will probably eat them soon.