I would carve it! We usually carve pumpkins each year with our kids, but we didn't last year. We had just started a huge remodel right before halloween and didn't have a kitchen and area to do our carving. My hubby loves carving pumpkins so hopefully he'll get back to it this year.
E. Wonder where it came from, since we don't really do any of those! We have carved jack-o-lanterns a couple of times, but I didn't really enjoy the process and our unimpressive results weren't worth the effort and mess.
Paint it!!!!!!!! So less messy, and it lasts for such a long time. Been doing this the past 5 years. Ours is a "Harvest Pumpkin" , and it is a time for us and the littles to talk about gratitude and celebration of life. It has become a family tradition. Just did this year's yesterday!
E. Let them sit on the porch, as is, until they start to rot or the squirrels get them or Thanksgiving comes.
Definitely paint. And it wouldn't be a real pumpkin as the heat/humidity in Florida rots them so quickly. LOL
I haven't bought any pumpkins for a few years. Chance stopped wanting to carve them, so I haven't fooled with them. But, when I did buy them, we carved them and roasted the seeds...yum!! Then we waited for them to rot and pitched them in the woods lol.
My family has done all 4, especially carving. When they were little I bought 3 or 4, one for each of them and sometimes a 4th for myself, and we'd all design and carve. My oldest has been the most creative with pumpkins. One year, using a hair dryer, she melted crayons she had glued to the top of a pumpkin so they melted colorfully down the sides. She has also painted a pumpkin. I've roasted pumpkin seeds a few times, but with some shame I admit more often I just lazily throw them away. I've made pies from fresh little pumpkins a few times. I LOVE pumpkin pie. That's what I'd most like to do with a pumpkin these days. I almost bought one for that reason when I went grocery shopping last week, but wasn't sure I'm up for it. I'll consider it again when I return to the grocery store tomorrow.
We just go with the real pumpkins, unpainted and uncarved. We keep them though Thanksgiving. One of my favorite photos is of the pumpkins covered with snow from an early storm.
Carved them as a kid and with my kids. I've carved and painted with the GK ... painting is much easier when they are little. Won't be doing either this year b/c the youngest GK is 16 and he's not interested. <wah>
Carve and make soup, or roast the insides. Throw away seeds, too fiddly. Yes, I know lazy... but in my defense we only ever get the small pumpkins here, you need to know the farmer or something like go to Italy for a proper size pumpkin. I use a tiny little saw and a dremel drill to decorate the pumpkins.
This! LOL. Although my older girls are begging to carve this year. I will probably let them since they are old enough to do it on their own. I'll probably tell them I'll buy them pumpkins if they help the younger kids carve. It's just one of those things I don't enjoy doing!
I would hope to do A and B: scoop out the pulp and seeds; separate the seeds and dry them out; roast the seeds with salt and a bit of oil; carve a fun/scary jack-o-lantern. But since A and B are a lot of work, I'd probably end up doing
Carve, I suppose. With my own kids I used to carve, but they're teens and over it. We were never the house with the impressive pumpkins that people marvel over--we did the basic triangular eyes, mouth with a few teeth, etc. At school the kids and I are doing both. They painted their pumpkins yesterday, and we're in the middle of me carving one for them. (I am waaay too lazy to bake or cook with fresh pumpkin. Canned or nothing!)