Even as The Soldier ran dozens of errands while packing for deployment, we could not remember to have him purchase pumpkins to carve for Halloween. So, as I drove our kids home from dropping him off I stopped at a fall harvest stand on the side of the highway. I hoped to calm (or at least distract) some devastated children, two of whom were screaming, "I don't like the Army. I wish Dad would just quit his job!" It worked quickly, as each started pointing out what he or she thought was the largest pumpkin. I chose a Cinderella gourdish one.For family home evening last night, we finally carved the pumpkins. The kids seemed just as excited as if we would have pulled it off in time for Halloween. Our method (which I remember from my dad) includes cutting out the top, carving out the guts, designing the face on a scratch paper, cutting out the paper design, and lightly straight pinning it to the pumpkin for a successful cut out. Before I could blink my oldest had dozens of straight pins punched through the paper and "hammered" all the way through the thickness of the pumpkin. Wish I had a picture of that.
