The Happy Howard's: Pumpkin Carving

One of my absolute favorite things to do is carve pumpkins. It was a tradition we had growing up....I can remember going to different places and picking the perfect pumpkins. We had to make sure they sat just right and were the perfect shape. We each had to clean out our own "guts" and then drew on our faces. They would get cut out by an adult and then it was always a surprise to what they looked like. We had to hide our eyes while our parents would light the candles and arrange them just perfect....
When Ryan and I started dating, he would tell me that he had never carved a pumpkin. I remember the first one we carved together....it had a very simple face, but was a lot of fun to do. Anyone who knows Ryan, knows he isn't really known for getting his hands dirty ;-) It has taken him a few years, but he is getting a little more used to it.
We have continued the carving tradition since having Zoe. We went close to Zoe's first birthday, right when she was just starting to stand, and I took tons of pictures of her standing in the pumpkins. We, of course, chose what face to carve. Last year, she helped clean it out, and somewhat had an input on what her face would be. This year, she was all about helping pick out each of our pumpkins, clean out the pumpkins, and what our faces should look like.