Pumpkin Decorating and One Very Tiny Chainsaw 🎃

With Halloween right around the corner, we decided it was time for one of our favorite October traditions: decorating pumpkins!

Of course, with six kids ranging from teenagers to a baby, there is no such thing as a simple family craft project. Everyone has different ideas, different attention spans, and very different opinions about what constitutes a properly decorated pumpkin. So we gathered up the pumpkins, paints, stickers, and carving supplies, and let everyone get creative.

This year, we had a little bit of everything. Some pumpkins were carved into traditional jack-o'-lanterns, some were painted, and others were enthusiastically covered in silly Halloween stickers. I love that we've reached the point where the kids can all participate in their own ways, from the older ones who can tackle the more complicated projects to the little ones who are perfectly happy adding another sticker to an already thoroughly decorated pumpkin.

Will, meanwhile, was especially excited about his carving equipment.

He had a battery-powered pumpkin carving knife that he proudly referred to as his "chainsaw," which sounds considerably more alarming than it actually was. Fortunately, it turned out to be a fairly ineffective piece of machinery. It made the whole operation feel very official without accomplishing much in the way of actual pumpkin carving, which was probably the ideal combination.

I think we were all happier with a chainsaw that didn't really work.

There is also something wonderfully chaotic about carving pumpkins with little kids. Pumpkin guts everywhere, tiny hands reaching for things they probably shouldn't touch, and the inevitable debate about who gets which tools, stickers, and colors. At some point, every surface seems to be covered in pumpkin seeds, paint, or both.

But somehow, by the end of it, we had a whole collection of decorated pumpkins, each one with its own personality. And I love looking at them all together, knowing how much of the kids' individual personalities went into making them.

Once the carving and decorating were finished, most of the excitement moved on to other things. But James and Kate came upstairs to the kitchen with me for one final Halloween project: roasting the pumpkin seeds!

This might actually be my favorite part.

After all the messy work of scooping out the pumpkins, it feels like such a treat to turn the seeds into something delicious. The three of us cleaned and prepared them, added our seasonings, and got them ready for the oven. It's such a simple little recipe, but I love having the kids in the kitchen with me, especially when they're excited about making something we'll all get to eat.

And I especially love those smaller moments within a big family afternoon. The whole group gathered around the pumpkins is wonderful, of course. But getting a little extra time with James and Kate in the kitchen afterward, making something together while the rest of the house moved on to its next adventure, was pretty wonderful too.

Naturally, I couldn't resist sharing the recipe, so our roasted pumpkin seeds recipe is now up on Sugarlaws!

I always think that one of the best things about having a big family is watching our traditions evolve as the kids grow. The teenagers, the big kids, the little kids, and the baby are all experiencing these holidays in completely different ways. Some are old enough to remember years of pumpkin carving, and some are just beginning to discover what Halloween is all about.

And while I sometimes miss the days when everyone was tiny, I also love this stage, when the older kids have their own ideas and the younger ones bring all that wonderful little-kid excitement.

By the end of the afternoon, we had a collection of pumpkins, a batch of roasted seeds, plenty of cleanup, and one battery-powered chainsaw that probably won't be getting a glowing product review.

Another Halloween memory for the books. 🧡🎃