Even though we made four puffy painted pumpkins already (one for each family member), we knew we couldn’t let Clara’s first Halloween go by without some traditional pumpkin carving action as well. And last weekend’s trip to the pumpkin patch definitely got us in the mood. Here’s the queen of our world flinging her arms out as if to say “I’m the queen of the world!”
And we even gave our royal highnesss the option to choose her very own pumpkin for herself, and she quickly picked this one out:
Ok, so maybe “picking out” meant more like touching one of the pumpkins we sat her next to. But she truly couldn’t keep her hands off of that one in particular, so we brought it home for a mere $2 (she’s already thinking frugally!).
We knew we wanted to keep the carving simple, since we don’t always have time for complex around here anymore. And thinking about how Clara was getting all hands-y with the pumpkin back at the patch sparked an idea. All it took was Clara keeping her hand still long enough to get a good tracing.
Maybe “good” is a stretch, but we deemed the one of the left “workable enough.”
We traced it on cardstock, so cutting it out left me with nice template to trace onto Clara’s pumpkin.
The plan had always been to use two handprints as the pumpkin’s eyes, but the fact that the fingers made them look like feminine eyelashes was a happy accident. An accident we then ran with by adding some puckered lips for the mouth and a wavy hairline at the top. Guess our baby girl is getting a girly pumpkin!
Some careful cutting later, we ended up with this:
And with the addition of a flameless candle votive we’ve got our traditional jack-o-lantern with a first-year-of-parenthood twist. Simple, but we quite like it.
Oh, and speaking of Halloween, check out how we’re embarrassing dressing our kiddos this year for their first hurrah together.
Yup, Clara’s a hamburger (in honor of her bro) and Burger’s reprising his role as a hot dog to complete the theme. Both are store bought (Clara’s from Old Navy, Burger’s from Target). Somehow I feel like our little lady’s gonna give us a hard time about this when she’s 16…
Psst- We announced our big winner for this week’s contest at the end of Monday’s original contest post. And Ikea actually surprised us by tripling the number of $350 gift cards they’re giving away. Click here to see if you’re part of that lucky trio!
Reena says
This time you topped yourselves, your baby is so cute, but this was unbelievable. What a great idea! And she is the perfect model!
Laura says
Clara is so darn cute! I love the burger & hot dog costumes. :) Very cute idea for a pumpkin, as well.
jja says
What am amazing face expression from Clara as hand painting co-wroker.
Alia Truex says
So funny! Those are the exact costumes we have for our daughter and toy poodle!
Lauren says
She makes the sweetest faces ever!! I love the costumes too, so precious.
Clara in Paradise says
The costumes are super-cute, but I needed to comment on Clara’s face when John was outlining her hand. I am trying to come up with a word to describe it, and the closest is “ennui”. It’s hilarious.
Adds says
Insane, $2!!!! They were $26 here in Australia, I waited till they went on sale for $13, yet to carve the bugger though!
Abby & Shawn says
Hey John and Sherry,
My husband and I noticed your fraternity shirt in the picture of you and Clara. What fraternity were you in John?
YoungHouseLove says
I was in Phi Sigma Pi. It’s a co-ed national honor fraternity, so it wasn’t technically part of the Greek system at UVA. Though when I say that a lot of people think it was just one of the honor fraternities you were in only on paper, but we acted like a real social organization that has parties, did community service, etc like a real frat. We even had a frat house!
-John
Kiran says
Super-duper adorable Clara :) and the pumpkin idea dedicated for her is so cute!!!
Ashley @ According to Ashley says
HAHAHA! Loving the costumes!
Cathy says
Oh my goodness that hamburger and hot dog photo is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. Don’t know why it grabs me so — I’ve seen both costumes before — but something about the angle and way they’re both looking up at the camera with similar expressios is priceless. I laughed til I cried. Pumpkin carving idea is cute too.
bklyn76 says
haha, we dressed up our boy and dog in the exact same costumes! [except the one for our pooch is too small so he looks extra-silly!]
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4132/5024014044_69fd63000b.jpg
Ginette says
Clara is SO photogenic & adorable! I honestly interrupted my husband watching football to say, “Look at how cute their child is…” ;o)
Briony says
Now if either of you dressed up as the Hamburglar that would have been perfection.
Alison says
John — I was in Phi Sigma Pi too at the University of Pittsburgh! Nice to know you are a fellow brother!
Monica says
What a great idea! That pumpkin looks great! And she looks adorable in her costume (so does Burger, of course)!
heather leigh says
oh my goodness, those costumes are hilarious! i absolutely love the combination. i also dressed my dogs up in embarrassing costumes, heh heh… couldn’t resist!
Lisa says
No way… my son (born 6/15/10) wore the same cheeseburger costume from Old Navy. And I sported a Heinz ketchup logo sweater from college, and my husband wore a yellow polo shirt to be mustard (we ran out of time to get stick-on letters from Staples to spell out the word on his chest). Too funny that I got the same outfit. Clara looks adorable (so did Nolan). I’ll have to put a photo on your FB page!
Katie says
Oh my goodness… this is hands down by favorite Halloween post. HOW CUTE!
Kay says
I am reading your blog backwards, which is interesting to say the least… But I just have a suggestion for you when trying to get Clara’s hand print. This method works best with construction paper, and I have found that green construction paper is the easiest to use (though I’m not sure why, the contrast is better) Wipe her hand with a wet towel and then have her “stamp” her wet hand down, simply trace around the wet mark and it will provide a very accurate hand print. If it happens to dry before you completely trace it is possible to re-stamp in the same spot. This also works for feet!
I love the projects that you do and I hope that one day we will own a house that I can paint and DIY until I love it!
YoungHouseLove says
That’s GENIUS! Thanks for sharing!
xo,
s
Barbara says
I am so inspired! Last year my daughter was only 2 months old. This year she is a year old and can really participate. Cant wait! :)