As a kid I have memories of getting pumpkins (some of them we grew, but I’m not sure where some of them came from when we lived in the south) and cutting jack-o-lanterns. It was yet another one of those artistic things I really wanted to be good at and do wonderfully creative montages you see on Pinterest. But like most arts and crafts, I got terribly bored and frustrated with it half way through cutting out the first triangular eye. My very few jack-o-lanterns were never works of art.
With my own kids we have only done jack-o-lanterns once before and that was the October after Ethan was born. I don’t remember why we did it. I imagine it was something Ed wanted to do and we had been to a local farm to get a pumpkin or two anyhow for me to cook and puree for baking. This year, though, Emry and Ethan have both seen jack-o-lanterns in enough books to want to do it themselves. So, they each got a pumpkin.
Of course the “do it themselves” would me too much at the ages of 3 and 5. So while they drew the faces they wanted and helped scrape out the seeds and pulp, Mama did all the cutting. And this is how we made jack-o-lanterns today:
Step 1: draw directions so Mama knows what we’re doing. (This was their own idea…like most kids they don’t believe I did anything before they came along.)
Step 2: cut the tops open and scrape out the insides, keeping the seeds for roasting. (There is no picture for this step. I was up to my elbows in pumpkin insides and Ed had yet to come out and join the fun.)
Step 6: wait until almost dark to go out and light them, shivering with both delight and cold.
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