Halloween – you either love it or loathe it! But there’s no denying it’s growing in popularity every year in Australia. With so much marketing in the shops these days Mr 4 has been so inquisitive about what it is, but mainly how he to can get candy (thanks YouTube). So I decided this would be the year we go all out with Halloween celebrations and no better way to get in the spirit than with some pumpkin carving!
Firstly, a few disclaimers – There is a lot of adult assistance required so it’s something you will need to do together. Also it’s way messier than it looks so prepared to get dirty. Don’t be fooled by the YouTube clips that claim they just scoop the centre out with a spoon – we fast learnt this is NOT reality! Be prepared to be elbow deep in pumpkin seeds! Also pumpkins only last a few days once cut so don’t cut too early if you want it to still be around on the the 31st.
First step is to draw up your pumpkin with the face you’d like to create. We spent some time googling different images before settling on one. Also keep in mind cutting the pumpkin is quite difficult so you want a face that is forgiving with miss cuts (not too intricate for your first attempt). We used a pen which we found great as it allowed us to wipe off as required.
Once your set with your design the next task is to cut a lid in the top. This proved quite difficult to cut through and is definitely one for the adults to complete. A really sharp knife with some muscle power is required.
When you have the lid off place to the side for the time being and time to clear out the centre of your pumpkin. This is the part your going to get quite messy! we found a spoon helped to scrape around the edges but to pull the centre out required our hands. Mr 4 loved getting dirty through this part, me on the other hand…. not so much! We pulled out as much as we could and placed into a bowl for disposal as we went.
Then onto the face cutting. Again, this is something that the adults should be doing and again quite tough to cut through, although not nearly as hard as the lid. We made many cutting errors as we went but it really added to the final effect so it really doesn’t matter. Once we had cut through pieces we just pushed them out and then used a sharp knife to tidy up the holes and make them look cleaner.
When all the cutting was done it was easy to remove any left over pen with a baby wipe, then added in some tealights placed the lid back on and our newest house mate was complete!
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