Pumpkin seeds and candles

I love Halloween! It's one of my favorite holidays. As we strolled into the produce section of Walmart the other day, Caiden starts pointing and ranting about pumpkins. The little ones, big ones, white ones, orange ones were all on sale. So we spent hours choosing the best three of the small ones and the largest, roundest, longest-stemmed of the big ones we could find.

When we got back to the lake, my sister pulled the newspaper out of the garbage and spread it all over the table. I dug up two knives and Caiden scurried to her room to find her red marker. That way she could draw the faces on the pumpkins. Janie and I cut open the tops in zigzags and spent the better part of an hour up to our elbows in pumpkin pulp and seeds. Using huge spoons and forks, we tunneled through the muck to make sure the insides were completely scrapped out.

While Janie cut out eyes and teeth, I scrapped seeds that stubbornly clung to the pulp and spread them in a pan to roast in the oven. Now we have three very scary small pumpkins and a big Momma one sitting out on the dock. We put pink and purple candles in them so that the folks across the lake can see them.

Sitting out on the green chairs, we munched on salted pumpkin seeds and waved at folks as they boated by for a look at our pumpkins. It's a little early and I'm sure I'll be doing it again in a couple of weeks, but it's a lot of fun!