Zaffiro Images: Trick or Treat

Carving pumpkins. For years I've carved pumpkins for my kids. They seemed to enjoy me doing all the dirty work of cleaning them out. And they seemed to enjoy the faces I come up with.

Since they have grown up and left me all alone (except for my youngest who's 22 now, for some reason he hasn't found the front door yet) I still carve pumpkins. I do it every year, and every year I try to make the scarest looking face I can, from scratch. I don't like using those templates you buy in a booklet that comes with your carving equipment you buy at the store. I like to use the ol' knives and gadgets I can find in my drawer. I like to make a couple 'scary' looking faces, and one 'cute' one - for the kids that come to my door.

This year was a little different. My grandson was involved in this carving. As much as I wanted to do a scary face, my grandson didn't want any part of it.

He got right in and gave me all the orders.

"Nana, cut it open"

So I did. And when I did, he jumped right in and did my dirty work! Now, maybe I can finally enjoy this part of carving pumpkins!

Yep, this isn't all that bad! Once the first one was cleaned out, he wanted me to carve it. I asked if I could do a monster. His eyes lit up and he said "Yeah, Nana. Do Sully!" For those of you who don't know who Sully is, he's the big blue monster from the movie 'Monster's Inc.'

Sully, I thought. What in the heck does Sully really look like? I've never really paid close attention that movie, so I don't know exactly how Sully looks. So, up the stairs I go to get the movie cover so I can carve Sully.

I'll tell you, carving something from the top of my head is much easier than carving something from the suggestion of my grandson!

My Sully looked nothing like the Sully from the movie, but Jayden sure thought it did. That's all that mattered!

Then the next pumpkin. I cut it opened and he cleaned it out. Yep, I do like this after all! Not only did he like to clean out the pumpkin, he liked to play in the mess.

The next 'monster' I had to make was Sully's pal, Mikey. He's the one-eyed green monster from Monster's Inc. Hmmm, that one just might be the easy one. I asked him if Mikey looked like Mikey. His response to me without taking an eye off his mess was "Yep."

Good!

The third pumpkin was one he didn't want me to touch, because it was one he made with face stickers placed on the pumpkin he did at the neighborhood Fall Festival. His name was . . . Pumpkin.

So, introducing the final three: Mikey, Pumpkin and Sully.

After we were done with our pumpkins, he was full of energy. This gave me time to practice my 'ghost' imaging photography which I love to do this time of the year. He was the perfect subject! I just asked him to run back and forth while I shot him.

Here's Jayden, the ghost!

His mommy, Kylene, had a friend in town visiting, Kassandra. She came in for the halloween weekend. Kylene and Kassandra spent the day looking for costumes to join Jayden for trick or treating. Jayden was Thomas the Train and they were his crew.

Such a great idea!