In A Pumpkin Galaxy Far Far Away....

Monday night we held our annual family pumpkin carving party. I love pumpkin carving. It was a tradition that I looked forward to each year of my childhood and I want to pass that excitement and routine onto my kids as well. But, it's probably Todd's least favorite event of the year... he dislikes carving pumpkins, hates the pressure of having to be creative and think of a design, and only does it because I make him. And, well, the kids are still mostly too little to carve. Finn can't stand the feel of pumpkin guts touching him, so he refuses to scoop them out. Phoebe thinks pumpkin guts are awesome, however, she spent most of Monday night putting pumpkin guts back into the pumpkins I had already scooped. And while Finn can decide on what he wants his pumpkin to be, I still end up having to do most of the actual carving. So this year, as I scooped out 4 pumpkins and then carved 3, the tradition start to loose a bit of it's luster. But, just a little bit.
This year's theme was Star Wars (of course, as Finn would say). Todd chose a storm trooper (because that seemed the easiest), Finn chose Yoda, I chose Princess Leia and Phoebe's pumpkin turned into an awful impression of R2D2 (OK, I was tired of carving at that point). But, all in all, the night went off without too many disasters and the pumpkins don't look half bad! And, of course, the night wouldn't have been complete without apples dipped in caramel sauce and roasted pumpkin seeds.