Elmo Pumpkin

Last year we started the tradition of taking Maddox to the pumpkin patch and eating at a local Mexican restaurant with our family.  (I guess I can start calling it a tradition since we have done it two years in a row!)

Here is this year's pumpkin...

(Before)

(After!)

We decided to go with the Elmo pumpkin since Maddox has taken a liking to Sesame Street.  "Melmo" was actually one of his first ten words.  He seems to be on a Super Grover kick right now (or "Bober" as he calls him), but we decided to go with Elmo since it is easier to recognize.

I started the process with an easy Pinterest search which led me to Pin this website: Zombie Pumpkin.

I printed out the Elmo template, but I wasn't sure how I was going to use it until I actually started working.  The first thing we did was cut off the top.  I remembered seeing this Pin about a better way to cut the lid off a pumpkin.  You can see from this picture that instead of cutting a perfect circle we also cut an additional flap in the back.

This made it easier to empty the pumpkin.  (And it eventually made it easier to place and light the candle.)

I enlisted help from Maddox to clean out our pumpkin, but you can see from these next few pictures that he was absolutely disgusted and his total participation lasted about 20 seconds.

Once it was cleaned out and Maddox was happily playing (far away from the icky pumpkin) with Grandma I figured out how I was going to use the template.  I taped it on and then used a pair of scissors to mark the outline of the template.

I did not cut all of the way through the pumpkin.  I was just marking the template.  You can vaguely see the outline of the face in this next picture.

After the template was marked I went in with my sharpest knife and cut out the pieces.

Konrad got a picture of us all working on the pumpkins.  My brother and his girlfriend did a pumpkin with an owl on a branch.  You can tell from the picture that Maddox has recently taken up climbing.

Here I am making my final cuts.  That last eye was tricky since the area between the eyes and nose got very thin.

I think it turned out pretty good!  In fact, this morning when  I put Maddox in his high chair to eat his breakfast he spotted the pumpkin, pointed to it, and shouted out "Melmo!"