(disclaimer: the above photo was staged and after-the-fact)
A couple of days ago, after watching The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, Reeve decided that at 8pm at night he was going to carve pumpkins with Kyle. I had told him "not tonight" many times, but he was motivated to get it done. He had seen the kid's pumpkin carving knives in the utensil drawer, so he quick found them and brought them to the table. He then proceeded to place newspaper all over the table and found two bowls in the kitchen for the pulp.
Meanwhile I'm trying to relax on the couch and I was pretty focused on a cross-stitch that I'm trying to complete before Christmas. The whole time I told Reeve, "please not tonight." I've read that boys have a hard time hearing the female voice (it's a genetic oddity) and Reeve certainly was tuning me out. Admittedly I wasn't being very stern, and I kind of half wanted to see how far he'd take this.
Reeve was unfazed by my pleas and he explained to Kyle how to draw the circle on top of the pumpkin to cut out the lid. Both boys drew the scariest pumpkin faces they could. I saw what they drew and I said they were definitely scary pumpkins, but they were going to have a tough time carving out what they drew. Once more I pleaded lets do this another time when I had more enthusiasm to help them.
Reeve was undeterred! He instructed Kyle to cut the lid out first then they could scoop the pulp out and carve their scary faces. Reeve carved his lid out and then helped Kyle. They both enjoyed their independence as they defiantly scooped and carved their scary pumpkins.
All-in-all I was very impressed with their results, and I'm glad they did it 100% themselves. We took the picture a couple of days later. They were so impressed when they saw how truly scary their pumpkins were in the dark.
