Do you wanna carve a pumpkin?

from the pages of the October 2015 issue of Simply Family Magazine. Check out the digital edition, here! 

It’s too soon (hopefully) to build a snowman, so…Do you wanna carve a pumpkin and put it on display? Whether you want to or not, the young ones in your house are most certainly on board for carving a glorious, creative, intricate piece of pumpkin art! (Or that might just be Pinterest talking - let’s be real - kiddos just want a pumpkin to carve and call their own).

Halloween might be the exclamation point on October, but if you’re going to get on board the pumpkin carving train, then it behooves you not to wait until the very last minute. Doing so is either a rookie mistake or a reflection of your crazily jam-packed schedule. For starters, waiting until the last minute leaves you with some pretty slim pickings, a.k.a. a sad, rotting pumpkin disguised as a perfectly delightful, ready to be carved pumpkin, only to have the stem (and top) left in hand as the rest of the disgusting, moldy grossness crashes to the floor. True story.

But whether you make your way out to the pumpkin patch or to the local grocery bin, what really matters to the kiddos is that you find the “perfect” pumpkin. What makes the perfect pumpkin, you ask? Well let me tell you what the “kid-spective” is on that:

What I look for in a pumpkin is…

-Sometimes I want a funky one, sometimes I want a perfect round one. –Makayla, age 9

-The biggest one in the store. –Sarah, 12

-Tall, round, fat, everything! A big fella. –Grady, 8

-I look for size…It depends on the year, if I want it large or small. I check if it’s a good orange or if it has good colors on it, and if it’s smushy or hard. –Thomas, 11

For a parent, finding the perfect pumpkin often involves this fantasy of creating perfect childhood memories. Yet, we know there will probably be mud, more than likely there will be whining, the picture perfect photo opportunity we’re planning to use on the Christmas card…Well, let’s just say we’re redefining what “perfect” really means.

Speaking of which, carving pumpkins – could there be a task less designed towards perfection? For some of us, it’s time to let go of the idea of pumpkin-carving-Pinterest-perfection because the kids that we checked in with really just liked to let their imaginations go wild. Oh, and scooping out the guts and baking pumpkin seeds – well, that just might be the best part, says Sarah.

So, do you wanna carve a pumpkin? Let’s go carve a pumpkin…