Jack-O-Lanterns!

After Jeff got back into town, for Family Home Evening the Monday before Halloween, we carved Jack-O-Lanterns out of the pumpkins we so excitedly picked from the pumpkin patch the week or so before. Unfortunately, pictures were an afterthought of the evening, so I only got a couple of the actual carving process. But I did get plenty of the finished products.

Here's Jeff creating his masterpiece.

Can you guess what his is going to be?

Sarah's friend, Katie and her older sister Ellie came with their family to join in the fun and create their own masterpieces with us. Here is Ellie helping Sarah trace out a design for her Jack-O-Lantern. She was so excited to help, and was so nice with Sarah. She's eight, and very outgoing. She even suggested the design for my pumpkin.

Here's Alex's (Left) and Lucas's (Right)

Ellie and Katie's dad did this one. I really wanted to get a picture of it lit from the inside, but my camera sucks at night pictures. So here's the flash version. It was pretty cool. Same design as Sarah's, only skinned instead of carved. You really can see the light through it when there's a candle. I guess you'll just have to take my word for how cool it really was...

Here's mine.


Here's the finished, lit product for Lucas (top), Sarah (middle) and Alex (bottom).

Here's a closeup of Sarah's. I carved it while Sarah watched. She said her favorite wolf is the one on the right side. And mine can be the one howling at the moon. She chose the wolf design for hers. Actually, she more insisted that be what goes on her pumpkin. She's been kind of into wolves lately because of the Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess (Nintendo game)

Here's Jeff's finished product.

Did you notice the "U"? We have very enthusiastic BYU fans for neighbors. They were quite appalled that Jeff would have the audacity to carve a "U" in his pumpkin with a guy scoring an extra point after a touchdown! Of course, they'll still be friends. But Jeff's been banned from their house for any and all BYU football games...

Audrey's pumpkin got painted with neon paint pens instead of carved. Partly because there were nine big pumpkins carved that night, and partly because we needed a little something more to glow in our blacklight lit porch at night. This was the perfect solution for both.

Here it is a glowin'

It was a fun Family Home Evening night that night. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves, and I had about seven batches of pumpkin seeds to roast! No pictures of those, sorry. But they turned out pretty well in my opinion. I made five flavors: Salt, Pumpkin Pie, Italian, Mexican and Curry. Mmmm...