Pumpkin Pickin'

This past weekend, Hubby and I took the kids to a local pumpkin patch. While we were able to choose a nice pumpkin for Zeke's carving project, I would NOT recommend this particular location due to the overpriced activities (not letting us in to look at the displays because we didn't want to take a sick baby out in the field and corn maze) and the overall rudeness of the woman selling tickets.

Anyway, all that aside, we did select a pumpkin and brought it home. Hubby was actually able to find a very cool website that let's you choose your pumpkin's features and put together a printable stencil! You'll need to sign up for a free account, but I think it's worth it.

So the boys set things up on the kitchen table, stencil taped to one side of the pumpkin, and went to work. Zeke was very helpful for the first few minutes, after which he got a little distracted. (Ahem!)

I asked Hubby to save the pumpkin seeds for me. I've seen recipes for roasted pumpkin seeds that sounded interesting, and I found a few on my all time favorite recipe website allrecipes.com that looked good. There were a LOT of pumpkin seeds taken out of this bad boy!

And after Zeke and Hubby finished taking out all the pumpkin "guts" and carving the face, we ended up with a rather cheeky looking Jack-o-Lantern that Zeke likes to keep in his room as a sort of night light.

I make sure to extinguish the tea light as soon as he nods off, however. :)

Since it's been so long since I've posted, a quick update on the rest of the family goings on:

• Gabe has been sick for the past week. Dr. J confirmed it is NOT the swine flu (which is awesome), but he's had a stuffy nose and lots and lots of coughing. He is on the mends now.
• We have started Gabe on squash and peaches mixed in with his rice cereal now. It took a few tries with the squash, but he took to the peaches immediately. I wonder why!
• Zeke is transitioning up from preschool to the pre-K class this week. He likes the fact that all the books and toys (and kitchen center) are new to him. He's such a nerd like his momma! LOL
• Hubby is still driving his truck. We miss him being gone so much of the week! :(

I guess that's about it. Zeke's having his Halloween party and Fall Festival at the daycare on Friday. This should be fun! I volunteered to make cupcakes again. Will update with all that soon!