Pumpkin carving?

[LarsMal]

Who carves the pumpkins in your house? Family event or just get it done when you can? How many pumpkins do you carve and when do you do it?

I've always been the pumpkin carver. DH will watch, take pictures, but he has never- even before kids- taken part in the actual carving. Of course he says it's because I do a better job! I just don't think he likes to get his hands dirty!

I have FIVE pumpkins to carve this year! I usually do them on Halloween evening, but I had to start early. I did 2 last night and plan on doing the other 3 tonight. It's cold enough that they should be fine for Friday.

DS and DD love to sit and watch, and they picked out the patterns this year (although I am doing VOTE on one of them!). Last year DS got his hands dirty and got all good and gooey in the pumpkin guts. He hasn't expressed interest in that again this year!

Do you have pumpkin carving traditions?

[brittone2]

This year we've been super busy, so my pumpkin is still waiting to be carved (DH did the kids' pumpkins with them).

We go to a pumpkin patch each year. We get one pumpkin w/ each paid admission. DD is free since she's under 2, so we come away with 3 pumpkins. We usually meet up w/ friends at the pumpkin patch...we do the whole hayride/corn maze/haybale maze/cotton picking, feed the goats, etc. with the kids and it is so much fun.

Last year we roasted the pumpkin seeds. I slacked this year and we never got around to it.

I think I'm going to try using a drill to decorate my pumpkin this year. One of the mags I read had pics of "BOO" spelled out with small drilled dots. I thought it might be fun to do that for a change

[Tondi G]

My DH cleans them out and we have some of those books with the fancy carvings that we usually do. Last year our now 7 year old carved his own. I usually do 2 and then DH does one and DS. We bought 4 pumpkins for this year... one year we got too many and the kids were bored an on to the next thing while DH and I were still gutting and carving! LOL

My neighbor roasted her pumpkin seeds this past weekend and shared some with us, my older DS LOVED them! I promised him we'll roast our own seeds this year! I am thinking thursday evening will be pumpkin carving night!

~Tondi

[Wife_and_mommy]

Do you have pumpkin carving traditions?

Ours is not to carve pumpkins.

Seriously, we did it the year DD was 1.5. She wasn't really interested in it considering how long it took so I decided to do other pumpkin-related activities. We visit several pumpkin patches each Oct. This year I bought a huge pumpkin and cut some facial features out of magazines. DD then made up faces for the pumpkin. She had a blast doing that. I also bought a bunch of minis and we just finished putting fall ribbon around each and are using them as decorations on our coffee table.

Last year I had both kids paint a pumpkin each and we displayed those.

Hth. I don't think the effort is worth it when they're so little so I've mixed in other activities that engage them more. So far they don't seem to care that DH/I haven't carved pumpkins for them.

[maestramommy]

This year is our first. I did all the carving, but Dh and Dora took out the muck and Dh sorted the seeds, with Dora's help. It was really hard work because the larger pumpkin had a rind like wood. Luckily we only had two!

[calv]

I'm/we're lame. I won't carve cause it's such a mess/task. I may just do it tonight tomorrow only because I'm in the mood. ;P kids usually paint or throw the stick things in to make the silly face pumpkins in them and we call it a day.

i'd be curious to see how to roast/cook the seeds. I could go for some fresh pumkin seeds

[Corie]

My husband and kids do all the carving and cleaning out the
pumpkin goop. I would do it but I think my DH enjoys it too
much. I'm the picture-taker.

This year, he got a little fancy and got out the power drill. He
and the kids went to town on this poor pumpkin.

We only did one pumpkin this year but that's quite unusual.
It's common for our family to do 3-5 pumpkins in October.

But, we did have the most delicious pumpkin seeds ever! My DH
is quite the cook!

[Tondi G]

I'm/we're lame. I won't carve cause it's such a mess/task. I may just do it tonight tomorrow only because I'm in the mood. ;P kids usually paint or throw the stick things in to make the silly face pumpkins in them and we call it a day.

i'd be curious to see how to roast/cook the seeds. I could go for some fresh pumkin seeds

clean off the seeds, coat with some Olive oil and salt, put on a baking sheet (make sure they are not piled on eachother cause they will stay too moist). Bake for 30 to 45 minutes at 300 degrees... make sure you watch them take em out when they start to brown. Put a little butter on them too and they will be yummy! You can also season with Garlic salt if you like! My neighbor put some nutritional yeast on hers and both my boys loved them!

[tylersmama]

I've always been the pumpkin carver, even before we separated. This year, I did two (out of the 5 pumpkins we ended up with). I did them during DS's nap on Sunday because I just wasn't up to dealing with pumpkin gutting with a toddler trying to get in the way. I always get the little carving sets from the grocery store, but this year I went to Crate & Barrel and got their "nicer" set in the hopes that it will last more than a year. Then I get online and google pumpkin stencils. I thought mine turned out pretty darn good this year, although I didn't realize how similar they were until they were done. Oops.

Re: toasting pumpkin seeds. For the first time ever, my pumpkin seeds turned out FANTASTIC. All I did was rinse the goop, toss them in melted butter (about 2 tbsp. for one baking sheet worth, I had two), and liberally applied sea salt. I put them in the oven at 250 for about an hour and a half, until they were just starting to get some color. I stirred/shook them 2-3 times. They are so stinking good, it's ridiculous. DS ate nothing but pumpkin seeds for dinner the other night! At least they're kinda healthy, right?

[LarsMal]

Yum! I wasn't going to do seeds this year, but reading the recipes I think I'll give 'em a try again. I'm getting ready to go tackle the last three pumpkins- well, maybe 2 b/c I know DH likes to have pictures of it for the photobooks. I bet DS will love helping me bake the seeds!