Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween Ya'll

Yesterday, we decided to carve our pumpkins. Jack and Emma had picked out their pumpkins, but we had yet to get Mark his.  I am never sure how much he will want to participate in the holiday activities now that he is a High Schooler.  Since he did not have a pumpkin, the boys set out to find just the right pumpkin.  7 stores later they trudged through the door with (and I quote) "The last pumpkin  available in Lexington."  Seriously?  John said they went to 7 stores and not one had a pumpkin in site.  Everywhere he asked, he was told they had sold out.  He also mentioned that people looked at him like he was the dumbest dad ever.  I Mean Really!  Who waits till October 30 to get a pumpkin!  When the boys did find a pumpkin, they came home with a tiny pie pumpkin.

We set to work cutting open the tops to the pumpkins.  I had no problems with Jack and Emma's pumpkins, but I could not get my knife into Mark's pumpkin.  I had John try and he got the knife in but could not get it back out.  Mark took off with his pumpkin and came back with a chisel wedged deep inside the pumpkin.  Great. Now we had a knife and a chisel stuck in the mini pumpkin!  After a few wiggles and a few curses (by dad) we were able to free the tools.  The pumpkin got microwaved for a few minutes in attempt to make it softer.  We failed miserably.  That was apparently the limit to John's patience.  Next thing I knew he and Mark were in the Garage with the pumpkin clamped into the vise cutting through the pumpkin with the jigsaw.  I have to say while I have never see that particular approach to pumpkin carving, it was effective. And for a 14 year-old boy, it was AWESOME!

Jack and Emma took the more traditional approach and  used patterns and hand carving tools.  Mark and Dad's more untraditional approach still yielded a great jack-o-lanturn.

For those of you who want to see the pumpkin project for yourselves Mark got every bit of it on video.