HOW NOT TO CARVE PUMPKINS WITH A PRESCHOOLER

Remember when you were a kid, and carving pumpkins involved stabbing them with a steak knife in order to get triangle eyes and a jagged smile?  That was more or less the pumpkin carving experience of my childhood.  Fancy was when our pumpkins had a few teeth thrown in the mix.  Fast forward to today, when elaborate patterns and power tools are plastered all over Pinterest.  Those ideas are great and all, but let me tell you they are not for us.  At least not until Mason turns 16.

We bought the pattern book.  "This is going to be great!" we thought.  Mason and Byron conspire to select the best patterns.

They decide on two different skeletons.  SKELETONS.  This is where things started to go wrong.  Skeletons have dozens of teeny tiny bones.  I didn't realize it at the time, but like five minutes later I would see the error in our ways.  Second mistake.  How many adults does it take to understand the directions on how to apply the pattern?  She looks happy.  It's fake.

And then, when we were carving and carving and carving those tiny little slits, we all began to feel like this.

We did finally finish those pumpkins...right before Mason went to bed.  The redeeming moment was when Byron got them finished, he turned out the lights and showed Mason what they look like lit up. Mason exclaimed, "Daddy, you made a Halloween!"  Love him.

So next year, would someone please remind me that we will enjoy ourselves a whole lot more if we just cut out triangle eyes?