Carving Jack-o-Lanterns

I wanted a white pumpkin to carve this year, so Charles and I headed to the garden center and found a small white pumpkin. Then we made our way to Kroger to pick up some ingredients for pumpkin dip (a post-carving treat with ginger snaps - YUM!) and to pick out an orange pumpkin for Charles. Well, I found out that Kroger had white pumpkins too, and they were bigger. So, we decided that the small white pumpkin could be for Toula. We picked out some good looking pumpkins and brought them home to carve... First, we had to cut the tops off...

and scoop out the goop... One of my favorite parts!!

Charles thinks differently about that part!The pumpkins were then ready to become jack-o-lanterns...Charles had to decide what he design he wanted to carve this year...

I knew before I even picked out my pumpkin that I wanted to carve a ghost in a white pumpkin this year. So, I quickly drew out my design...

and began carving...

The circles actually weren't too hard to carve...

After some contemplation, Charles drew out his design...

and began carving his jack-o-lantern...

It started thundering and lightening, so we had to take a little break, but once the lightening passed, we went back outside and listened to the rain as we finished carving...

After getting the basic design, we took a little time to smooth things out...

I really was excited about how my ghost turned out!

I think that both of our jack-o-lanterns turned out great!

After finishing our jack-o-lanterns, it was time to start turning Toula's pumpkin into a jack-o-lantern Toula!

I took on the challenge and began carving...

I think it turned out pretty good...

Me and my Toula-o-lantern!! :)

We then brought in the Toula-o-lantern for Toula to see...

It took her a little while to figure it out! After some hesitation, she went up to it and marked it...Toula then decided to nibble on the stem!

We then brought in the other jack-o-lanterns...
Toula really was a little leery of the three of them at first. After some coaxing, Toula went back to her pumpkin...

and then checked out the others...After Toula checked them all out, she had had enough of the jack-o-lanterns, so we took them outside... to the entry...

They look great!

After waiting until dark, it was then time for the real test - to see how they looked all lit up...
I think they turned out really good this year, and Charles and I certainly had a fun time carving them!!