Pumpkin Carving

Wednesday night we had all the kids home (with significant others) for a night of Taco Soup and pumpkin carving. The soup was delicious, (if I must say so myself), and the carving was a lot of fun. I thought I would share some pictures of the festivities with the two or three people who still visit this blog.

At work on the pumpkins. As any experienced pumpkin carver knows, the job begins with cutting into the gourd and pulling out the lovely stuff inside.



It is very important that you keep your head down and follow through on your scraping motion. Here, Stephen helps me keep my head down. This was, in fact, the first of two pumpkins which I cleaned, a certain someone, who will remain unnamed, batted her eyes at me, much the same way she did some 27 years ago, and I caved in and relinquished my cleaned out pumpkin.



Scott shows some natural Gohring scraping abilities. (Note the powerful elbow motion, you just can't teach this stuff.)



There was some concern as to whether Brittany would complete her pumpkin by Halloween.



Scott let Chelsey share in the joy of cleaning out the seeds and goo.



Chris is something of a speed-carver. He was the first one finished. Staci, as you can see, was a bit more meticulous.



Heads down and working, Stephen is nearly finished carving, and Brittany is still working on the design.



Jan eschews the traditional carving implements and works exclusively with power tools. She has recently bought a full set of pumpkin bits for her Craftsman Router.



My pumpkins always tend to look like this.



The completed Jack-o-lanterns!



Illuminated!!!



Scott and Chelsey - Skeletonish



Staci - spooky



Chris - Sic 'em Bears!!!!



Brittany - well worth the wait.



Stephen - a chip off the block, huh?



Jan - artsy fartsy



Steve - no comment



Now they are all ready to line the steps for Halloween tonight.

Bring on the Trick-or-treaters.