Guts

We had a very windy weekend here, getting whipped with the outer-most bands of Hurricane Sandy as she swirled past North Carolina. No rain, just lots and lots of wind. The temperature was still good, so we camped out on the back porch and carved out our pumpkins.

I really should say that Nate and I started to carve out our pumpkins. Every year we try to get the boys excited about it. This year, we got everyone to at least tell us what kinds of eyes, noses and mouths they wanted on their jack-o-lanterns before running away the first time.

The boys don't like to touch the pumpkin guts. They're cold and squishy and stringy. I thought for a while that perhaps it was some kind of preemie sensory issue, but when Matt announced that he didn't like putting his hand in the pumpkin guts either, I realized it was just a Slavik kid-ism.

Nate was nice enough to scrape the inside of the pumpkins to loosen the strings. The boys reluctantly pulled a few spoonfuls of guts from their pumpkins. I have many photos of grossed out faces. Once they had cleaned out their obligatory pumpkin, they were gone again.

Nate made sure that everyone had completed their jack-o-lanterns before he started on his. He had the largest pumpkin to carve. Big pumpkins means lots of pumpkin guts. As the boys left their pumpkin gut-free play in the backyard to get some snacks on the porch, Nate took his opportunity to have a little fun.

As you can imagine, this scene ended in a lot of high pitch screams. Halloween is truly nearly upon us.

As Hurricane Sandy approaches the mid-Atlantic and beyond, we're thinking positive thoughts for all of our family and friends in her path. Please be safe!