this year's pumpkins

I had hoped to revive our pumpkin carving party tradition this year, but fate was against us. I had gotten rid of our old dining table and ordered a new one but  the shipping company somehow lost it. We have been using this red bench as our table for the last five weeks:

I finally just canceled that table and ordered another from somewhere else. Crossing my fingers the new one makes it!

A pumpkin party without a table seemed rather inconvenient, so we carved solo again this year. And again, we themed them to her current obsession. Right now,  she is in love with Curious George. She started with the books but now prefers the TV show. I know, sacrilege!!

But she likes better that "the man catches him" (and George doesn't break his leg) in the TV episode and she is never satisfied with my answers when she asks, "Why did he open the ether bottle? Why did they have to put George in the cold shower to wake him up?" when I read the book(!). And, I've kind of accepted it because the TV show is a bit more contemporary with characters of different races and women working. In fact, Rain Dragon is so interested in the female firefighter that it was one of the characters she chose for the pumpkins:

Hundley (or Pretzel, she always makes me change the name when I read that book), Lady Fireman (that's Rain Dragon's name for her) and, of course, George

In the years past, I mainly used a plain kitchen knife. But this year we bought some new carving tools and what a difference! So much easier!

And they come out so much better too! I think these are our best pumpkins, yet:

I know Rain Dragon thinks so!