Carving pumpkins, sibling style

While my brother was visiting last month, we took the opportunity to carve a few jack-o-lanterns. Can you believe that Trevor has never carved a pumpkin before?? Oh, that just will not do!

If you're with the Mehaffeys in the month of October,  you're going to adhere to our strict Halloween traditions. No fall is complete without carving a pumpkin! (Or the annual eat-the-pumpkin-goop-from-the-super-scooper-picture.)

For it being Tevo's first stab at carving (ha, see what I did there?), I have to say, I do believe he did a fabulous job! I especially enjoyed both of our attempts at reinacting our pumpkins' facial expressions. Trevor perfectly duplicated that one eye bigger than the other thing. He's a natural.

I love the way they look, glowing in the dark.

Carving pumpkins is one of my favorite fall activities. It was great to get to share this year's experience w/ my brother. I'm so glad I could be the first one to introduce him to the joys of gutting a fruit and drawing silly faces on it.

BTW, Brad oh-so-graciously "donated" his pumpkin to Trevor. Somehow, he didn't seem all that disappointed to be missing out on the awesome tradition. Hmm. His loss.

Halloween at the Metcalfs

Got an email from TJ this morning along with some pictures of their Halloween. I laughed:

Thought you all might like to see some recent Halloween pictures. Mindy you need to tell your husband to come over next Halloween and we can do some good pumpkin carving with MAN tools not those wimpy 2nd grader girl carvers. We still haven't managed to talk Rachel out of wearing her swimsuit every day and want to go swimming even though its 40 degrees around here. I guess she is just going to be in a swimsuit year round.

I mean, for real, Rachel is so cute. I can't believe she was brave enough to touch the guts!!

I guess these were the "MAN tools" he was referring to. Seriously, TJ? A saw? And then you put your daughter in a helmet just in case it gets away from you, or what?? No wonder he was making fun of Brad's "wimpy 2nd grader girl carvers." That is so my brother...

Here is the result of all of that "MAN carving." A very manly pumpkin display, indeed! I cracked up when I saw this. The Pumpkin Horror is apparently wreaking havoc among the townsfolk. He's destroyed one, beat up another, is eating a little one, about to throw another, and causing one to vomit all over himself in terror! Honestly, somebody has got to gather some control over Pumpkinville! (Sheesh. And I thought Brad's pumpkin wasn't very nice...)

Here's the fam trick-or-treating. Those Metcalf girls sure do make beautiful Snow Whites! Look at Rachel with all that lipstick on! I'm not sure what Clinton was, except staying warm. But he's still super cute!

Oh, and here's Rachel in that adorable swimming suit she loves to wear. Of course, it's princess. I love that she's wearing boots to keep warm, but still chooses to wear the suit regardless of the temperature. She is hilarious. Such a diva.

Okay, that's all. Thanks for indulging me. I just enjoyed the pictures so much and laughed so hard that I couldn't help but share them. What a great family. :)

Grins and Grimaces

Remember those giant pumpkins we got for dirt cheap? Well, they had just been sitting around our house as un-animated decorations. With Brad's crazy schedule, it had been extremely difficult to plan our Annual Pumpkin Carving Ceremony, this year. We finally managed to squeeze in the oh-so-important fall tradition on Halloween day. Thank goodness. I was beginning to get nervous!

With the second appearance of our helpful Pumpkin Super Scooper, Brad and I each created our very own masterpieces. (Also, the second appearance of the now-traditional eat-the-pumpkin-goop-from-the-super-scooper-picture. Nice.) While I sought his opinion regarding eye shapes and teeth placement, Brad refused let me see even a glimpse of his design until it was fully complete.

And now you can see why. Since he was doing his own jack-o-lantern this year, he decided to make it spooky, creepy, and "not wimpy." Obviously, his pumpkin didn't like being stabbed in the head, hence the grimace. He was very proud of his handiwork. (I believe he used his own portrait as the inspiration.)

Boy, mine sure is cute and cuddly. Such a sweet little thing to see glowing in our home. However, I guess boys will be boys. I never anticipated that the Pumpkin Carving Ceremony would exhibit our true gender differences, but alas, we are indeed much different at heart... (By the way, notice, in the previous picture, which pumpkin Chester prefers. Ahem.)

Even though the ceremony was last-minute, that didn't meant that we neglected the important things, like self portraits of us using the camera timer! Who knew we were such great artists??

PS. Notice how much shorter I really am than my husband. In nearly every other picture of us together, I'm unconsciously standing as high as I can on my tippiest tip toes to diminish the height difference. However, with the combination of the running to grab the pumpkin and get into position in under 10 seconds, and the weight of that ginormous pumpkin, I stood flat-footed. Wow. Maybe our friends realized how much taller he is (notice, that he's taller, not that I'm shorter), but I never see us next to each other except in pictures in which I'm on my toes. Honestly, how do we even kiss each other??

Anyway, tell me all about your own Pumpkin Carving Ceremonies! Did you get super creative? Did you go for happy or scary? Did you stand on your toes for the picture? I'm dying to know...

Complete Halloween 2009 Album

Halloween Traditions

We finally found some time to squeeze in the most important Fall Ritual of them all - the Pumpkin Carving Ceremony. We once again joined forces with the Howell's and the Mitchell's, and a little help from the Pumpkin Super Scooper, to create the best darn Jack-O-Lanterns this side of the Mason-Dixon line.

While the guys cheered for the Titans to beat the Colts (against my inner conscience), the girls had a great time getting all goopy as we prepared to sculpt our masterpieces. Daniel and Rachel did the "typical redneck Jack," complete with a few missing teeth. Brad and I (well, I) decided on a cute little Jack-Jack. And Aaron and Erin perfectly demonstrated their personalities by creating a "Pumpkin Pie."

Complete Pumpkin Carving Album