Carving Pumpkins.

We've been so busy that we didn't get around to carving pumpkins until Friday night.

 

 

 

Annie stands at that fence and hollers for our neighbor, Jack all the time.  She's always pestering him for grapes from his grapevine or blackberries from his blackberry bushes.

She asked him to marry her the other day.

I think she was telling him about how big our pumpkins were in this picture though.

 

Josh had the clever idea of cutting all the pumpkins with his Rotozip tool. 

The Rotozip makes quick work of pumpkin carving and will be a staple come pumpkin carving day from here on out.

 

Everyone's pumpkins were perfectly in character with their designer...

 

Josh Down's with a very unpredictable, Beaver-themed pumpkin.

 

Courtney Lee with a happy, Jesus-loving pumpkin.

 

Coley with his usual, cranky pumpkin.

 

Annie with her, 'I'm-just-going-to-draw-on-it-with-a-Sharpie-because-I-don't-like-to-touch-pumpkin-guts', pumpkin.

 

And me with whatever pumpkin I can carve the quickest so I can get back to taking pictures.

And not the best picture...but I kine of like it anyhow.

And someone asked how I handle the candy situation at Halloween...

Usually, I let them eat a fair amount on Halloween night but then the next day, I let them pick ten pieces that they want to keep with no restrictions on when they can eat them.  That means that Cole & Annie scarf theirs down in five minutes flat and Courtney Lee goes into worry-mode over how to make her candy last as long as humanly possible.

There's a dentist here in town (Dr. Frimkess - 1150 Crater Lake Ave, Medford) who is buying back candy from local kids for $1 a pound and then sending it all to our troops.  So that's what we're doing with our excess this year.

Oh, and that gorgeous, tree-line street where we went trick-or-treating is not in our neighborhood (I wish it were)...Josh Downs happened to spot that location and knew I would love it.  And since the kids care more about candy than location, they had no complaints about where they went trick-or-treating.

Comments

[JaYne]

So glad that was a short break from blogging!
The kids are adorable. Courtney should be a nurse, she's a natural in that costume.
I miss little ones at Halloween. They are just too cute!

[Dina]

Love the pictures, Karen! I think that doctor's idea of buying the candy back from the kids is great.

[Shauna M]

its nice to be reading you again :) xo
Love the glowy pumpkin pics..
love the idea of the rotozip- I'm going to suggest the 'dremel' as our carver of choice next year.. see what hubby thinks of that.. we have not carved in two years..I do not like the gunk either..
again.. happy to be reading you again ...

[renee]

In reply to this post and especially your last one about trick or treating - it seems rather magical , how lovely for Cole, Courtney Lee & Annie in the future to be able to look back through these pictures. Great to hear from you again.

[SusanC]

I am so glad you are posting again! Love the pictures!

[Mary]

Karen, I chuckled while reading this. I am also married to an engineer and more times than not, I can see quirky similarities between my guy and your guy. And with this post it was the rotozip! We only got one pumpkin this year to carve and put the carving off until the last possible minute (an hour before trick or treating). My guy so badly wanted to use his rotozip and I was worried about it because I didn't know how it would go considering we were pressed for time. I now have confidence in the rotozip for next year :)

[Jennifer M.]

I love that you all scout out great looking neighborhoods to go trick or treating in because the pictures will look better. That is beyond awesome.

[{vicki}]

How do you take the picture with the glowing pumpkins?--I LOVE IT!!!!

[robyn]

i love love LOVE the idea of buying the candy back from kids so they don't rot out their teeth! i also love how you did it - let them eat as much as they want that night, then give them only a specific amount after that. keeps you from having wound up candy-filled kids for the next three weeks!

good things to remember for when we have kids someday!

[Cate O'Malley]

Love that last picture! After all the trick-or-treating is done, my kids go through the candy and decide what they don't want. They leave it out for the Halloween Fairy, who, much like the Tooth Fairy, comes in the middle of the night, takes the candy and leaves a small gift in its place. They're happy. I'm happy. I bet the dentist is happy.

[Kelli]

Love the pumpkins! I offered to buy back the candy, so that I could eat it and my daughter said 'no thanks'.

[Stephanie]

Hey Karen, I'm in your class right now. So on these shots did you bust out your expo disk and make a costume WB? I just have to know.

[Suezi gurzi]

Love Love that tree lined street! I live in Calif. in the OC and there is nothing like that around..very jealous!
The kids looked great!

[Debbie]

Power tools on pumpkins must be a guy thing...my boys do that too!....and make the grunt sound while they work...hee hee Love the dentist's idea of buying the candy back!!! Awesome, awesome pictures!!! Thanks for coming back to share!! Nice to see a little peek of your dog!!

[Bridget =)]

those are the biggest pumpkins i've ever seen! LOVE IT!!!!

[Sally Davidson]

Hahaha. I'm laughing at your comment about the Jesus-loving pumpkin. She's a sweet girl.

Is it weird that I just want to go to your house and watch your family interact? Yes? Alright fine. I'll settle for whatever you give us on the blog. :)

[Carrie P]

Love Courtney Lee's pumpkin!

[kat-in-texas]

I swear Josh Downs and Lonnie Stilwell are brothers separated at birth...the Rotozip tool? Sounds like my husband!!! Ha!!!

[Cindy Welch]

So Stinking cute, great stories you bad blogger lol

[Shari Barnes]

Great pumpkin carving!! We didn't get around to doing ours this year and the kids were so disappointed. MUST make time next year!

[Tracy]

Great pumpkin carving and love the "tool" also! :o) Another brownie point for Josh the man Downs on choosing the location for trick-or-treating - what a BEAUTIFUL place to have gone and great pictures to go along with it! :o)