“Pumpkin picking” – Evelyn’s Diaries

I have been reliably informed this week that we are approaching Halloween! I really like Halloween, as you start to see everybody decorate their houses with spooky things, like ghosts and skeletons. However, I don’t like the spiders, I think that is a step too far.

Another thing you see lots of around Halloween, is pumpkins! They are everywhere, with some people even carving scary faces into them and setting them on fire…or that is what it looks like.

I was a bit unsure why people suddenly cut pumpkins open and set them on fire during Halloween. But this year, I have had my first experience of setting my own pumpkin on fire and I totally get it!

Hunting our pumpkins

But before we get to that, we first had to go out and hunt down our pumpkins. At first, I was a bit nervous about doing this, as I am not very big yet and I don’t run very fast. So I was a bit unsure if I was going to be able to catch a pumpkin and be able to wrestle it into the car and take it home. Some pumpkins are as big as me! I thought they must have been the adult pumpkins, I was hoping to catch a baby pumpkin.

My Mammy took me to the pumpkins natural habitat, which was a big open field. I thought that they would all be hiding in trees or in bushes, but to my surprise, they were all out in the wide open field. Hundreds of pumpkins were just sat in the field, they must have been able to see us but they didn’t try to run away at all.

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I could see other people catching their own pumpkins and I will be honest, they made it look really easy. They didn’t have a net to scoop them up, or a rope to tie them up. They just walked up to the pumpkin and picked it up with no fuss at all.

I won’t lie, I was a bit confused. Why weren’t the pumpkins running away? Suddenly, it all fell into place and I felt really silly. Here is me looking at all the pumpkins, confused as to why they are hiding in trees and not running away, when the answer is obvious. They don’t have any legs. Honestly, what am I like!?

I found my pumpkin

Knowing that they couldn’t run away, I felt a lot more comfortable and ready to catch my first pumpkin. I spotted a lovely little pumpkin that wasn’t too big and wasn’t too small. I approached cautiously, planted my hands around the sides and picked it up. Got it! I caught my first ever pumpkin, without getting bit or stung or anything. Surely you are all impressed!

My Mammy caught her pumpkin too and we headed home. The plan when we got home was to start carving the funny faces into our pumpkins and set them on fire. However, when my Mammy started trying to chop the head off the pumpkin, she couldn’t do it, it was too tough. So she had to ask my Daddy to do it. He made it look really easy, so I am not sure why my Mammy was making such a fuss.

Anyway, this is when I felt really guilty. My Daddy did the hard work of getting the top off the pumpkin and then it hit me, we didn’t even get him a pumpkin to carve. Ah well, he should have caught his own pumpkin!

Designing my pumpkin

I drew my design onto my pumpkin and my Mammy helped carve it out to complete my masterpiece. The pumpkin didn’t make any noise at all throughout all of this, so it must have liked getting lots of holes cut into it. Once this was done, it was time for the fire! Which was pretty disappointing, as it turns out that all you do is put a little candle in the middle of it. Bit of an anti-climax really, I wanted explosions and massive flames.

Regardless, our pumpkins were complete and on display in our kitchen. I had prepared a thrilling tale to tell my nursery of how I battled through muddy fields to hunt down and capture my first pumpkin, However, I was then told that pumpkins aren’t animals. Which was slightly embarrassing for me.

Now my “heroic story” was that I walked into a field and picked up a piece of fruit. Not sure they will make a film about that.

Evelyn x

Previous diary – “Becoming Spidergirl” – Evelyn’s Diaries – 15th October 2023

Next diary – “Evelyn the Oompa Loompa” – Evelyn’s Diaries – 2nd November 2023

Evelyn’s other recommendations:

• 15 Halloween Activities Parents Can Do At Home
• Why You Need to “Catch Your Kids Being Good!” 
• “Halloween!” – Evelyn’s Diaries
• 5 Common Toddler Behaviours and How to Manage Them
• My 1 Year Blogaversary! – A Summary Of My First Year Blogging

(This post contains links from affiliates of this blog. If you make a purchase via the links, you will get a discount and I will earn a small commission at no extra cost to yourself. So everybody wins! All affiliate links will be labelled as such)

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