Pumpkin Fun... the dirt kid shining through

     It was Oct 10th, when the first Halloween treats arrived at our house. Grandma Stacy, unaware if she would see us before the holiday, dropped off a baggie full of goodies for each of the girls. Now, in my family, if someone brought you a gift early, it was opened early. I quickly learned that is not the protocol in the Mette Family.  Cards that arrive in the mail are reserved to be opened on the occasion, and so this treat bag was properly placed above the refrigerator to be opened at a later date. 

    I made it until Oct 23rd. Michael was gone on retreat. The kids and I were stuck at home and the weather was fabulous, but we had no vehicle to go play at the park. I knew that the treat bags would be tossed aside once the Halloween candy was in tow. I also knew that grandma had gone to great lengths to include NON-candy treats that could possible provide us some entertainment. So... I gave the girls their bags. Each bag had 2 pieces of candy that were reserved for dessert. They also had a glow stick that was packed away for halloween. Each girl got a coloring page, which they decorated immediately. Lastly, each bag was weighted with a tiny pumpkin. A treasure.

   I allowed the girls to carry their pumpkins around like dolls. They loved them! Michael came home for lunch before heading to camp and explained what great decorations they make and that they should be perched properly by the flowers on the table and left untouched so they do not get broken. 

   Now, I personally think this request was a bit ridiculous. First, they are tiny, nearly solid pumpkins. For a small kid to break one would take a great effort. Even if they break, it is not like it is going to shatter pumpkin guts everywhere. Thirdly, the girls LOVE them. So, I allowed them to play with them. 

   After carrying them around the house got old, the girls took their pumpkins out to the yard and started burying them in the mulch. This was a dirty mess, but they were having fun and not arguing, so I let them be. Then the real fun started. Charity was climbing and accidentally dropped her pumpkin from the deck. Thus began "Pumpkin Rain": 

 

They were determined to test my theory about the tiny pumpkins being nearly undestructible by dropping them repeatedly from a point about 6 feet from the ground. All was fun. Annie was comical, insisting that she could tell who's pumpkin was who's when they all fell to the ground and bounced about the yard. She would hold two side by side, examine carefully, and declare that pumpkin A was Charity's and pumpkin B was hers.

Then, it happened.

Trinity's pumpkin hit the edge of the air conditioner and became cracked!

Darn. Michael was right. Those tiny pumpkins do actually break!
   At first I was concerned that this would cause a problem with 3 perfect pumpkins and one cracked pumpkins.  Little did I know that a cracked pumpkin was a GOOD thing. Suddenly everyone was excited.    "Now we can plant it!" Trinity exclaimed. Soon they were banging the pumpkins on the sidewalk trying to increase the crack and get to the seeds. Finally they succeeded.

The interesting thing about this whole process was that now, for some unknown reason, after 30 min of digging in the mulch and throwing pumpkins around - we needed to get a knife so that we did not get dirty while scraping the seeds out. So, we carefully removed all the seeds and put them in a baggie. 

Then we took the baggie to the dirt beside the driveway and poked a hole with the knife and began our planting.  Annie found an old bottle and brought out some water. They carefully used the knife to place the seeds into the ground, poured the water, and then patted the mud with their bare hands.

The task at hand was complete. I declared it bathtime!