Hales & the Hacienda: Channeling My Inner Control Freak

Here's how pumpkin carving usually goes at my house:

Mom says: "Come on, kids! Let's carve pumpkins!" The kids get their pumpkins and sit at the table. Then they fight over who gets the knives to open the pumpkin. Then, they whine over the gooey stuff in the middle: "Mom, can you get this stuff out? It's gross!!!" Then comes the actual carving, which is fraught with the possibility of one of the children loosing a digit or two.

By the time we're done, I'm a wreck and the kids must go outside because the mess is more than I want to deal with - at least, with them still under foot.

So here's what I tried this year:

First, I took the pumpkins to our outside table. It was a gorgeous day - sunny and maybe 65 degrees. The girls were off playing with friends. The boys were helping Dad in the garden and unpacking their camping stuff (from a week ago - Finally!). The baby was exploring the garage, which Doug and I have been cleaning out for the past two weeks. So I calmly carved off the tops, and cleaned them out. It was Zen-like. I even saved some of the seeds for next year's garden (Doug want s a huge pumpkin patch so the kids can sell pumpkins in our front yard next year).

The mess was negligible. It was cleaned up very quickly, and I was still in a good mood afterwards. Not bad. That was Saturday.

The emptied pumpkins, on a beautiful clear day in October

On Sunday, the kids noticed that there were cleaned pumpkins just sitting on the table outside. They brought them in, after getting permission first (they are learning!), and set to work drawing their faces.
The carving produced no blood, and the mess was again, negligible. I did get one complaint that I had already cleaned out the pumpkins, but it was from the daughter who Really Hates to get her hands dirty. So I am not concerned there. And, whew!, we are done with carving pumpkins.
Definitely doing this again next year.