Even though we’d already made four puffy-painted pumpkins—one for each family member—we didn’t want Clara’s first Halloween to pass without a classic carved pumpkin. A recent trip to the pumpkin patch put us in the mood for some hands-on jack-o’-lantern fun. Here she is, throwing her arms wide as if to declare, “I’m the queen of the world!”
We even let our little queen try to pick her own pumpkin. To be honest, “choosing” mostly meant touching a few until she latched onto one she liked. She couldn’t keep her hands off this particular pumpkin, so we brought it home for just $2 — a bargain and an early lesson in thrift.
We wanted to keep the carving simple. With a baby in the house, elaborate designs aren’t always realistic, and a straightforward project that involves a little of the child felt perfect. Watching Clara paw at the pumpkin at the patch sparked an idea: we’d use her handprints as the face. All it took was getting her to hold still long enough to trace.
“Good” might be optimistic for the first set of scribbles, but one of the tracings turned out workable enough. We traced the hand onto cardstock and cut out a neat template to transfer to the pumpkin—cardstock makes a sturdy stencil that’s easy to position and trace around.
We planned for two handprints to serve as the eyes. When the fingers on the print created what looked like delicate eyelashes, we embraced the accidental girly vibe. We added puckered lips for the mouth and a wavy hairline at the top of the pumpkin to complete the face. Before we knew it, our baby’s pumpkin had a sweet, feminine personality.
Careful cutting with a small carving knife and a few cozy breaks for supervising adults later, we had a finished face that felt personal and fun. The whole process is a great example of a low-stress, family-friendly project: involve the child for the special touch, use simple shapes, and rely on sturdy templates to keep the design tidy.
After the cuts were cleaned up and the top replaced, we set a flameless candle votive inside for a safe, flickering glow. The result was a traditional jack-o’-lantern with a first-year-of-parenthood twist—simple, sentimental, and exactly the kind of keepsake memory we wanted to make.
And because it’s Halloween, we also picked costumes for our little duo. Clara will be a hamburger in honor of her brother, and Burger is reprising his hot dog role to complete the theme. Both outfits are store-bought—Clara’s from Old Navy and Burger’s from Target—and they make for an adorably coordinated first hurrah.
Call it sibling solidarity or future blackmail material, but we suspect Clara might give us a hard time about that hamburger costume when she’s 16. For now, though, it’s pure charm and one more memory added to our family’s firsts.
Psst—We announced this week’s contest winner at the end of Monday’s original contest post. Ikea surprised us by tripling the number of $350 gift cards they’re giving away, so three lucky readers will win instead of one. Check Monday’s contest post to see the winner and full details.