Jack-O-Lantern- Eliot Style!

Of course I remember doing jack-o-lanterns when I was younger with my Mom and Sister, but I'm quite sure I never actually carved my own. This year was the perfect year to do this 'craft' with my best bud, Eliot. The pumpkin we used was actually grown BY Eliot. My brother in law gave out pumpkin seeds and instructions at my nieces first birthday back in March as party favors. Eliot took pumpkin growing very seriously. We watered it daily and kept it in the most sunlit space we could find. Soon (VERY soon) Eliot was growing a NUMBER of pumpkins! We had to keep changing out pots. Soon, they were just too big-- some were dying off because of lack of space and others just kept growing so we decided it was time to take them to Uncle Colm's garden to be planted for the rest of the Summer.

We went back in September to see our, --err-- Eliot's pumpkin, and were just delighted! A beautiful, round, healthy pumpkin! We picked it (with some help from Auntie Carolyn) and took it home. It sat on our counter in our kitchen since.. until yesterday when it was time to make our--err-- ELIOT'S pumpkin into something more; a jack-o-lantern!

Eliot was quite excited when I told him what was in store for the afternoon. He quickly ran to get his diggers because, well, surely THEY would be better for carving a pumpkin than a knife and spoon. We worked together and came up with a beautiful jack-0-lantern that we are both very proud of.


And here is just a picture 'just because' of Eliot in his 'working gear'

And because this blog IS about Eliot I just have to document the cutest thing (and I've learned when you have a young child, there are about a billion 'cutest things,') but it's so funny-- whenever you tell him something he doesn't want to hear ("Eliot, you HAVE to use the potty before you go to Linda's" "Eliot, you have to pick up your trucks before we can play Thomas tracks", etc) he comes back (in an angry tone) "Don't you be kiddin' me!" Oh my gosh, it gets me every time! I think I'll use that the next time someone tells me to do something I don't want to do.

Day Out With Thomas 2011

Last year was Eliot's first experience at a Day Out With Thomas at Edaville Station in Carver. We went as part of his birthday gift. We spent the whole morning there, then came home to nap. As soon as he woke up from his nap, he asked to go back... and he's been asking to go back to "Thoma" ever since.

Edaville looked like it wasn't going to open at all this year, but finally, it was sold and they were quick to put up DOWT dates. We were keeping a close eye and ordered tickets just as soon as we could. we were so excited for Eliot.

We woke up Saturday and I whispered to Eliot that TODAY was the day we were going to see Thomas. His eyes LIT up as he said "TODAY?!" It was priceless.

This year, my Sister-in-law, Carolyn, planned to go at the same time so Eliot had even more fun with his two cousins-- both on Thomas, and on all the other rides and structures. Eliot kept going back to an antique (play) fire engine and we three (as a family) had some laughs and fun on a see-saw.

It looked like it was going to rain (and at time, it did drizzle), but all in all, we were very happy with the weather and the way the day turned out; Eliot especially.