Rose carved a pumpkin all by herself. As we jumped into the pumpkin carving ritual, I was telling the kids about the first time Rose participated. Ooh! Yuck! No! That pretty much summed up Rose's opinion of pumpkin guts. She still thinks they're pretty gross but was coaching David on how to manage the experience. Then she asked to carve her own.

We introduced sharp knives this summer. It went so/so. Rose still has all her fingers, but she's having trouble getting the knife through the large block of cheese. This is both understandable and essential. She eats a lot of cheese, and I would like her to be able to make her lunch. We got her a cheese guillotine which is a little easier to manage, but she's certainly not knife confident.

So, I was pleased when she asked to carve her pumpkin. She cut the top off. I loosened the guts, and she scooped them. She designed her face and carved it. I will admit it wasn't a major knife. I picked up one of those pumpkin carving kits last year, and they have big handled flexible serrated edged knives in purple. It actually works much better than a regular kitchen knife, and I was less worried about her control.

She made a great scary pumpkin; I made David a great scary pumpkin; and we got everything cleaned up before dinner.