a night of goopy hands and a coveted scooper

last night we finally carved our pumpkins. we had been hiding them inside from the crazy bold and ravenous squirrels. (do you remember our experience last year? the critters in our new neighborhood seem even more ambitious.) everyone had a job - luca and jesse pulled out the guts, i carved the designs, and gia spent the hour and a half hogging the scooper. the little orange guy worked amazingly, so everyone wanted to use it, but gia "needed" it to pull out seeds one by one.

every year i say we are going to carve simple faces. i like to avoid frustration and disappointment, and frankly, my hands get tired from the carving. but luca really wanted this certain monster design and i got suckered into it. there were a few muttered words under my breath, but everytime luca would say, "oh i see the head/tail/eyes. i love this monster mama." i would be reenergized to keep going." the smaller pumpkins were inspired by gia's "o" face. very close resemblance.

we decided to protect our pumpkins during the day by putting them in our screened porch out back. well, the squirrels just climbed in through the rafters and got in a few nibbles. the tip of the monster tail was one casualty.

we got some great videos, but ever since the computer was fixed, i have been having some issues with my player - so i will add them later hopefully.