Bill's Sesame Street Pumpkins

Bill speaking: I have to admit that every Halloween one of my favorite things to do is carve pumpkins. Every year I try to beat last year's showing.

This year I wanted to do something that the boys would recognize so I decided to do Sesame Street. You can tell which ones I started with and which ones I finished with. The pumpkins that are supposed to be Ernie and Grover could be anyone, really. Those two, along with Bert, are only recognizable because they're sitting in a group of Sesame Street Pumpkins. But I'm pretty proud of my Oscar, Big Bird, Count Dracula, and Elmo. After I got the hang of it with the first three I grabbed some of the boys books and carved a little more convincing likenesses of the other characters.

The real story behind the pumpkin carving is the injuries I sustained while carving. Hollowing out 7 pumpkins by yourself tends to give you cramps for a few days. I also stabbed myself (twice) with the carving knife (no safety tipped knives for this carving professional), and ended up shoving pumpkin under my thumbnail about 1/4 inch. I also burned myself multiple times on multiple nights lighting the pumpkin's candles. You wouldn't think that those kinds of injuries would be possible carving pumpkins, but somehow I found a way.

Lastly, the reason that I am even writing this post is because Sarah doesn't like carving pumpkins or anything related thereto. I'm surprised I was even able to convince her to let me buy 7 pumpkins. She didn't really help me carry them from the field to the Pumpkin Train, from the Pumpkin Train to the car, from the car to the house, or from the house to the table to be carved. I hollowed out the pumpkins by myself, cleaned up the mess, carved the pumpkins, set them out in the front yard, took all of the pictures, and took them in at night. Did I mention that all Sarah was doing was taking care of the kids? Pretty weak excuse to get out of carving pumpkins if you ask me. Oh, and she also is reminding me that she cleaned the house while I was carving. Still, pretty weak excuse. I wonder what it will be next year. I'm sure she'll come up with something equally lame.