smashing pumpkins

In the spring, we mulched the garden patch, built little mounds and planted pumpkin seeds. All summer long we watched as the seeds sprouted, grew and quickly overtook the garden. The vines sprawled into the playset and crept under the fence into our neighbor’s yard.

Every few weeks a child pulled me to the garden patch, where we counted 1, 2, 3, 4….

By harvest we had 19 large pumpkins and dozens of the little tinies.

Lucy admiring the barfing pumpkin– my boys read waaaaaaay too much Calvin & Hobbes.

For a few weeks the pumpkins are showcased on the front porch and then carved into fantastical designs for their grand, lighted premiere on Halloween night.

But then, after All-Hallows eve, they are shrunken, useless, pitiful. So we like to give them one last hurrah.

Up the stairs….

Through the attic access in the laundry room…

And to the top of the roof, where in a 2 minute barrage of flashing orange missiles they are tossed one by one to the driveway. Screams ring from above and below as each pumpkin transforms to squash.

And it doesn’t hurt that election day comes right on the heels of Halloween. Call it a celebration or a time to vent. Either way, it’s a smashing good time.


ready for next year
November 3, 2008
November 7, 2008

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10 Comments

  1. Katie

    November 5, 2008

    What a fun tradition! No doubt your kids will remember and cherish that always!

  2. Jodie

    November 5, 2008

    What a great crop of pumpkins. Soooooo, who gets to clean up the mess after the big smash?

  3. Michelle

    November 5, 2008

    ah, the clean up is easier than you’d think. The boys just grab broom and shovels and it’s gone in 10 minutes.

  4. Claudia

    November 6, 2008

    My kids would LOVE doing that! We’ll have to give it a try.

    I must say that I absolutely love the first and the last pictures of your boys. As many pictures as I take I really should take a lesson from you sometime soon.

    You are a good mommy:)

  5. Alyson (New England Living)

    November 6, 2008

    That is so awesome! I love it! I may just steal that tradition for our family.

  6. duchess

    November 6, 2008

    What a great time for a kid.
    Permission to make a huge mess.

  7. Danielle

    November 7, 2008

    that is awesome, how fun!!!!

  8. the merriest

    November 8, 2008

    no way! you are a waaaay more fun mother than me! super cool.

  9. Bonnie

    November 8, 2008

    That sounds like such a fun tradition! I love the pictures of Lucy and the squashed pumpkins. She’s grown so big!!! :O

  10. smart mama

    November 10, 2008

    m- you pictures are always so perfectly crisp– seriously I have image envy…

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