Pumpkin Carving
Hard to believe Halloween is just around the corner. Fall has been very mild this year. It hasn’t even snowed yet. Being in Northern Canada we sometimes have to find costumes that fit over snowsuits. Last week we went to pumpkin fest at a local farm. The kids had a blast with the pumpkin chunckin, corn cannon, hay wagon rides, horseback riding, petting chickens, goats and rabbits. We bought some pumpkins for pumpkin carving as well. The scale they had went to 50 lbs. One of the pumpkins we bought weighed more than 50lbs!!! My son carved the minion into this one. The Grim Reaper was carved into a pumpkin that weighed over 40 lbs!!
Some of the things you will need to carve the pumpkins are spoons, knives, pencils, skewers, pens and sharpies.
Cat on the Moon
Step 1:
Cut top out of pumpkin.
Step 2:
Scrape out the seeds and stringy stuff. The kids call this the guts.
Step 3:
We went online and googled some pumpkin pattern images. We printed them and then thumb tacked paper to the pumpkin. I tried tape but it did not stick very good. Take a skewer and poke holes around the pattern to transfer the image to the pumpkin.
It is hard to see in this picture but there should be hundreds of little holes in the pumpkin.
Step 4:
Connect with the dots with a sharpie or pen.
Step 5:
Start to cut out following the lines. It is easier to start at the center of the image and work your way out. Cut into smaller pieces in sections. This will make it easier to pop out the chunk of pumpkin. Especially around the finer details.
Minion
My son wanted to do a Minion. We found this pattern online and printed it.
Don’t worry. I didn’t let a 5 year old use a very sharp knife.
Bat Signal
First thing I thought of when I saw this squash was the Bat Signal. It was fun using something other than a pumpkin to carve.
The unusual shape made it a little tricky to clean the “guts” out of the ends. I decided to cut out the back instead of the top as the squash was going to be laying on its side. 
Classic Jack O Lantern
My daughter wanted to do a classic free hand pumpkin. She used a pen to draw the lines.
This is the thickest pumpkin I ever carved. The husk was almost 6 inches thick at the top.
Here is this years pumpkin family.
Bat Signal
Grim Reaper
Cat 
Minion
Cat on the Moon
Jack O Lantern