It's the Great Pumpkin

So begins my attempt at pretending it is the holiday season. It just doesn’t feel right without the nippy air blowing against your face as you burrow down into your sweater. David says we are going to crank down the AC on Christmas Day, wear the one sweater we brought, and drink some hot wassail.


But we are not there yet, so in shorts my sister and I headed off to a pumpkin patch to find the canvases for our astounding carving abilities (not really). I don’t care what anyone says about convenience – picking up a pumpkin as you walk into the grocery store just doesn’t create the memories that come when you head out into a field yourself to hunt down the perfect one. Which sometimes involves strategic planning and always involves running. Luckily, our legs are longer than most 5th graders. Ha ha! Take that, kiddos.

The Pumpkin Selecting Process:

Search

Find



Inspect



Deliberate



Select

Or in Courtney's case, choose two since you can't decide.

Oh wait, make that three becuase this one is cool and warty. She was very excited.

Anyway, our husbands conveniently found other things to do, so we headed off into the patch by ourselves. It was nice, with all the noise, kids, and hayrides that over the years have replaced horses with smelly tractors. After many goofy pictures, and changing pumpkins like 5 times each, we took our treasures and headed home to schedule their lobotomies.

A few nights later was the big day, and after much deliberation we set to carving. As you can see, I have to give Court mad props for her howling wolf, as all we had to work with were steak knives. I’m still not sure how she did it. I’m not patient enough for that. Hence, Scary Snake Man. Much easier.

However, he was not too scary, as he failed to intimidate Paul’s Pirate Pumpkin in an arm wrestling match (which I lost. Big surprise).

I absolutely love pumpkin seeds.

Here is Courtney, high on sugar. Somwhow, the amazing Wilson genes were called into question regarding our jumping skills. Naturally, Courtney's sugar-addled brain decided a jumping contest was in order to prove we could actually jump higher than 2 inches (we can't) and as usual, Paul decided to spice things up by attempting to light our feet on fire as incentive. I wish I could find that picture.

So that’s it. Pretty tame. The scariest thing about this Halloween was how much a pumpkin cost.

***Here's a warning, people: This might be a theme for the first few months as we adjust to living in a high-priced area. My girlish shriek of incredulity has become common at the local grocery store. It is going to be like a party once we move back to the mainland.***

David was in CA, so we chilled in the house and watched a movie; it was a Will Ferrel flick, so we got our calisthenics in as we repeatedly leapt up from our seats to turn down the volume during inappropriate parts lest we emotionally scar the cute trick-or-treaters looking for candy. Unfortunately, I think I was Court’s best customer.