Halloween Fun!

One of the things I'm most grateful about is that Jamie, the Little Brother I've mentored through Big Brothers Big Sisters since 1997, managed to have made it to 17 without ceasing to enjoy the fun, creative traditions of childhood. There was no hesitation when I called up to suggest we take a hoard of pumpkins to my friend Natalie's house in Henderson so we could carve them with her, her two boys, one of our other friends, Rose, and Rose's two boys.

Oddly, when we all got right down to it, the little boys -- ages 2 through 9 -- showed no interest whatsoever in the craft. Try as we might have, they could not be riveted from their Charlie Brown cartoons, so it ended up being me, Jamie and two grown women around a patio table enjoying a youthful throwback experience over adult conversation. Not bad, really.

Above to the left is a pic of me and Jamie with our results and above to the right is a shot of the ones that Natalie and Rose created on behalf of their kids. I was also impressed by this yard in Natalie's neighborhood (left), especially considering that this (right) is all Miles and I could be bothered with!

I spent this afternoon roasting the pumpkin seeds from all those gourds, which is like crack to me and I'll have to have Miles regulate my intake. But mostly I'm trying to figure out why, for the second year in a row, my carved pumpkin is starting to cave in and get all gross just one day after it was cut up. Is it my imagination or didn't these things used to last longer when we were kids?

Anyone have any suggestions for preventing pumpkin spoilage long enough to make it to, uh, Halloween?