pumpkins

In the beginning of October, Grandma took Butterfly and Ladybug out on a playdate. They came home with little pumpkins that we used to decorate the fireplace mantle and three big pumpkins (one for each of the girls) that we put out on the porch. The largest of the three got stolen (how lame do you have to be to steal a kid's pumpkin?) but the other two sat on the porch throughout the month. Halloween came and we never found time to carve them.

But we wanted to roast the seeds. So tonight, we brought the pumpkins into the kitchen, cut the tops off and began scooping out and cleaning it for the seeds. Butterfly and Ladybug sat on the table, so excited and eager to help...for the first few minutes. Ladybug quickly became distracted by using the bowls as drums. This activity was soon stopped and she decided to read her books instead (while still sitting on the table amidst the pumpkin goo). Butterfly's eagerness evaporated almost instantly with the discovery that it was "messy". Our prissy little girl panicked when she saw daddy scooping out the goo with his hands and began to whine about getting dirty. Still wanting to help, she tried picking out the seeds with just her fingertips and accidentally got pumpkin on her wrist. Genuinely upset, she whined until I came to the table and ignoring her complaints, dove right in. This apparently promptly a realization that it was okay for her to get messy and she got over it.

We finished scooping out all the seeds and I took them away to begin washing and roasting. Daddy started to clean up the mess but Butterfly begged to "make faces" on the pumpkins. We had no idea she was so excited about getting to carve them. So daddy gave her a marker to draw the face. She actually did a pretty good job so daddy set to work cutting out her picture. She coached him and together they produced a perfect jack o lantern. Daddy even put a light in it so they could get the whole effect.

Daddy set the jack o lantern up on the counter for the girls to admire. They pulled chairs up close and sat inches away, whispering and admiring. Then Ladybug picked up the pretend baby bottle she had been playing with and fed it to the jack o lantern! Butterfly took over the bottle feeding while Ladybug then used a baby spoon to pretend to spoon feed it. But my favorite part was when Ladybug grabbed a stack of story books and the girls took turns reading to the pumpkin!