Thor O’Lantern

For those parents who have not had the time to carve their pumpkins with their children, today is really the last day for you to do so.

One of the great things about having a boy is that they are ready, willing, and eager to get in there and participate in the entire process that is carving the pumpkin.  If your son is anything like mine, he wants the knife to do the carving.  Naturally, you cannot give a toddler a knife and expect good things to happen.  With that said, you are going to have to do some preparation.  Last year, I carved the top part out of the pumpkin and then allowed my son outside to help scoop out the seeds and the pulp:

   

  

After that, it is time to use some of those really dull pumpkin carving knives so your child can participate.  Given a toddler’s dexterity coupled with their hand and arm strength, it is better to go with the traditional triangle eyes and a pretty wide open mouth, if you are going to carve the rest of the pumpkin with them:

  
For lights, you obviously don’t want your toddler playing with matches or a lighter.  That’s just plain dumb.  You also don’t want to light something and stick it in the pumpkin.  They are going to get curious, and sooner or later, they are going to get burned.  Moreover, they are probably going to want to light the pumpkin each and every night because that’s what children do – they want to do the same thing over and over and over and over again.  With that in mind, it is probably best for you to get battery operated tea lights.  They are everywhere, are reasonably priced, and they can be used over and over again unlike a match.  Moreover, you can actually let your child turn the light on and off.  As you will notice, the battery operated tea light has the same effect as a regular candle.

For those people who are more adventurous, or have older children, you can attempt to make your own Mets themed pumpkins this year:

For those interested, you can even make your own Noah Syndergaard or Thor O’Lantern.

No matter what path you choose, good luck, and Happy Halloween.

 

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