Carving pumpkins

All week the boys have been patiently, well as much as they could, for Aunt Erika to get here.  They had made a list of all the things that that wanted to do during her stay.  The first thing they wanted was to take Erika to the apple orchard and pick some apples and get her a pumpkin of her own.  Our three boys had already got their pumpkins so we didn't have to walk around for them to find any...amazing how fast they expected her to pick one out when it took them a good 30 minutes to find one.  I had promised the boys while Erika was here we would carve our pumpkins.  I was able to find these carving knives that the kids could use but wouldn't be able to cut themselves while using them.  Before I go on anymore on this story I should tell what happened a couple nights ago at our supper table......

We were all sitting around the table like most night having an enjoyable supper of venison steaks, cottage cheese, and broccoli.  Eli was eating his cottage cheese and decided he was ready to eat his steak.  He asked for a new fork.  I asked him why he couldn't use his fork anymore....his reply "My steak will get dirty" with a serious face.  What your steak is going to get dirty from the cottage cheese.  When we refused to give him a new fork he took his napkin and wiped the fork clean.  I would love to say this is not normal, but it is for Eli.  He is a neat freak when it comes to keeping himself clean.

So back to carving pumpkins, I cut off the tops of the pumkins starting from oldest to youngest.  Usually works pretty well for us.  When I got all of the tops cut off I told the kids they could start digging into the pumpkins.  Erika dug right in, which was no surprise.  I look to the next face in line and this is what I saw

Yes, Eli was just sitting there.  I asked him why he wasn't digging into his pumpking like a "normal" boy would do (afraid to hear the answer).  "I don't want to get dirty Mommy can I have some gloves."  I couldn't believe it he wouldn't dig in the pumpkin.  He just stared at it, and stared, and stared.  I didn't make a big deal about it, just moved on to Parker.

Parker and Chace didn't waste much time on getting their "goop" out.  I was really impressed how well they both did.  When I turned back around to Eli I wasn't surprised at what I saw...

Yep, you guessed it.  Aunt Erika came to the rescue and started cleaning out Eli's pumpkin so his hands wouldn't get dirty.  What a good aunt she is.  So than Erika decided everyone needed a little of her help

Well we finally got the cleaning part of the pumpkins ready and it was time to start carving.  Parker was real excited that he got to do his by himself, I helped Chace out, Erika did her own, and Eli, well, he just looked at it still.  I asked him if he needed help starting his and what did he say to me.  "Mom your hands are dirty you need to wash them."  How I have raised such a neat freak I just don't understand.  Nate and I aren't this way, but oh well this is a battle not worth fighting.  Parker ended up spending over an hour carving his.  Erika was able to get the pumkin done pretty fast.  Chace I just played around on, while Eli's just sat there.  This is what Eli was doing while the carving was going on

He was having more fun playing on the swingset anyway.  We finally got all the pumpkins done, with me doing both Eli's and Chace's.  We have to go and get some fake candles to put in them tomorrow.  I wish I could have gotten a picture of them after we were done, but it was dark time so it will have to wait.  We had a great day doing all our adventures and is excited to see what tomorrow brings for us.  Have a great night.