Potty About Pumpkins!

Last week while at my Dad's on the South Coast, we helped to pick some of the pumpkins he had been growing on his allotment.

There was one pumpkin that was particularly special to the children and I and that was the one we had sown from seed ourselves back in April. We had planted lots of seeds and most had germinated but due to a lack of space in our garden we gave some to Dad to grow on for us on his allotment. It was super for the children to see this most enourmous pumpkin and to be able to understand that it had grown from one of the tiny seeds they had planted. 

On the allotment, Dad handed Jenson the knife and helped him to pick one of the pumpkins. It was wonderful to watch and such a positive experience that far outweighs a loathsome trip to Sainsbury's to buy one. It helps the children to understand where food comes from and the importance of being a little self sufficient in an otherwise very disposable world.

Jenson was so proud about picking his own pumpkin and Wren enjoyed the experience too. 

Back at Dad's house, Jenson took great care to wash all the mud off his pumpkin.  

He then helped to lift all the pumpkins into the wheelbarrow for a picture!

That brings us round to this week and the small matter of carving them all! It took a while. I'll be honest, but I have to hand it to Jenson, he did his all by himself. You know how it normally goes, the kids are dead keen to do the activity then after about five minutes they get bored and wander off. That just wasn't the case with Jenson. It has been the first year he has shown real enthusiasm for the project from start to finish. Wren on the other hand did as I described above!

We left the biggest pumpkin for Simon to do with the children when he got back from work.

Finally, Halloween eve arrived and we lit all the pumpkins that we had cared for, planted, grown, harvested and carved over the last six months. The results are spook-tacular!!