Jack O'Lanterns

OK, so who says pumpkins have to be carved on or before Halloween. We were only a day late even by those standards which I don't necessarily agree with.

To get things started, we selected the largest and the smallest pumpkins by son bought. I cut open the pumpkins in such a way that the lid wouldn't fall into the pumpkin when it started drying out.

Once open, Tim and Jake enthusiastically spooned out the "guts". They were eager to carve the pumpkin but just as eager to get the seeds washed, salted, and baked in the over for a nutty treat.


You could certainly tell that these two boys had carved pumpkins before. They encouraged me to download some patterns from the Internet as they forgot to bring theirs over. They then carefully pinned the pattern on the p;umpkin and began transferring the pattern on the pumpkin by poking holes through the pattern and into the pumpkin.

Tim's pumpking being the largest was a little more tiring than the other so we tried other methods. Here you see him trying to use my little rechargable drill to cut into the pumpkin.


While Tim was working on the large pumpkin, Jake was trying out the new plastic "nails" that we picked up a few days ago. Supposedly they are supposed to channel the light from inside the pumpkin to the pattern of nailheads on the outside. It worked but not as well as it should have if they have used the right plastic and mold. As it is, it transmits very little light. I hate it when someone comes so close to an engineering breakthough but don't know it and therefore don't make the better product.