Carving Pumpkins

We're getting ready for Halloween.  Today we carved our pumpkins, out on the deck, at the end of a crisp and sunny fall afternoon.

 

Arthur and Navelle liked scooping out the seeds but were a little put off by the sliminess of the pulp. 

 

 Gabe did quite well, managing heavy, slippery pumpkins, a sharp knife, Arthur falling off the chair, Navelle using a permanent marker, and the kids fighting over kitty ears.

By now, Gabe and I know better than to say things out loud that we don't want to explain, at length, to Navelle. Despite knowing better, he and I were both remembering, aloud, a mother goose rhyme with a pumpkin.  Navelle had the following questions:

What's a pumpkin eater?

Why did he have a wife and couldn't keep her?
Why did he put her in a pumpkin shell?

[answers, anyone?]

One pumpkin was so dense that Gabe couldn't cut through it. Upon Gabe's suggestion, Navelle drew a face on it with "permadimp" marker. "At last!" she exclaimed. "My chance to use a permadimp marker!"

Here she is, cautioning Arthur not to touch the marker.