#274 pumpkins

I really like pumpkins.  They are the perfect color and texture.  I like how they are plump and bursting and calm.  I love that they come in all shapes and sizes.  But I only love them orange.  Those freakish white ones scare me a little.

We painted mini-pumpkins earlier this week.  And did some pumpkin cleaning today.  I always break up the “carving pumpkins” into a two-day affair here, because my kids like to languish over the scooping out of the guts part.  And why rush that if you don’t have to.  So today we cleaned them off, cut out lids, and scooped and scooped and scooped.  The house had pumpkin seeds and guts everywhere.  6 spent a lot of time just running his fingers through the squish.  8 needed to get his entire body in his pumpkin in order to clean it out.  (He never thinks he’s cleaning unless he gets himself dirty.)  And 5 really needed to poke.  So he just poked holes all over the side of his.  Whatever.  Tomorrow we carve.

Some seeds made it into the oven for roasting and we munched on them while playing board games this afternoon.  Husband and 6 are out picking up our pizzas now for movie night.  8 and 6 are downstairs playing video games until they get back.

It was a rainy day – the first we’ve had all week.  And 5’s class was supposed to go on a field trip to the pumpkin patch today, but we canceled because of wet.  I asked 5 if he wanted to go to school or stay home with us and he thought about it and changed his mind back and forth for over an hour.  But finally he decided to stay home.  So we did watercolors and baked brownies and read a new book that came in the mail yesterday called The Yellow Umbrella.  (It’s amazing!  Set to music – no words.  I highly recommend.)

A very cozy day.  The pumpkins made it grand.  I heart fall.