When I was a little girl, my dad would paint faces on pumpkins. He would paint faces on pumpkins for his school classes, the church, his friends, or me. One year I was really into Miss Piggy from the Muppets and he painted a pumpkin for me that looked just like her. He constructed her blond locks with yellow construction paper. He curled her hair with a pencil. I LOVED IT.
As the years have passed, I've attempted my shot at painting faces on pumpkins. Of course, mine will NEVER be as good as my very artistic Dad's, but I think it is fun just the same and I have enjoyed sharing that creative urge with my kids, every now and again. This year, Ashleigh wanted to carve the pumkins I grew in the yard over the summer. They are really too small to be good Jack-o-lantern pumpkins so I told her that we could paint a couple and that she and her brother's could take the rest to their Dad's to carve for Halloween, since they will be with him this year.
This is the end result of my creativity. It's not the best, but I enjoyed spending the time with my little girl to do something that she has been begging me to finish.
After a rough dinner, Ashleigh asked if she could paint her pumpkin since I had painted the whites of the eyes on them two nights before and they were beginning to get moved around and looking like they wouldn't get finished. We couldn't find any decent brushes and I was beginning to get a little frazzled. I decided to just let go and use what we had.
This is Ashleigh's version of her creation. I didn't do the regular lesson that my Dad would do when building the face of the pumkin, first because I needed to get Luke moving on finishing his homework so he can get better marks in school, and secondly because I cannot remember the lesson that he would give while painting the face. I just let her go all in and do it the way that she wanted.
I think that she did a pretty good job on a pumpkin face for a little person that has never done this activity with her mother before. I cannot recall if she was with Dad and I the last time that we painted pumkins together back in Longmont several years ago.
Ashleigh went all in and added a few written words on her pumpkin since I had added Happy Halloween, 2008 to mine. She added her name, and the phrase, I so pretty! She cracks me up! She even went as far as to add two faces to her pumkin.
I believe she was telling me this face was Jackson. A boy that goes to her school. She kept saying his name over and over again. I think she is crushing. I can't believe how much she is like her mother! I'm really in for the long haul!
Once we were finished painting our pumkins, we set them aside and there was paint left over on our little paint dish. Asheligh asked that we both paint our pumkins on a piece of paper. She handed me mine as she began work on hers. I think she had a different idea of what I was suppose to do, but in the end, she liked the picture that I painted for her!
I'm glad that I took the time to sit with Ashleigh and do an activity with her. Sometimes we let life rush by us without stopping to see what's in front of us. Before I know it, she will be an adult and all I will have left are my memories of her! I LOVE YOU ASHLEIGH.
As the years have passed, I've attempted my shot at painting faces on pumpkins. Of course, mine will NEVER be as good as my very artistic Dad's, but I think it is fun just the same and I have enjoyed sharing that creative urge with my kids, every now and again. This year, Ashleigh wanted to carve the pumkins I grew in the yard over the summer. They are really too small to be good Jack-o-lantern pumpkins so I told her that we could paint a couple and that she and her brother's could take the rest to their Dad's to carve for Halloween, since they will be with him this year.
This is the end result of my creativity. It's not the best, but I enjoyed spending the time with my little girl to do something that she has been begging me to finish.After a rough dinner, Ashleigh asked if she could paint her pumpkin since I had painted the whites of the eyes on them two nights before and they were beginning to get moved around and looking like they wouldn't get finished. We couldn't find any decent brushes and I was beginning to get a little frazzled. I decided to just let go and use what we had.
This is Ashleigh's version of her creation. I didn't do the regular lesson that my Dad would do when building the face of the pumkin, first because I needed to get Luke moving on finishing his homework so he can get better marks in school, and secondly because I cannot remember the lesson that he would give while painting the face. I just let her go all in and do it the way that she wanted.I think that she did a pretty good job on a pumpkin face for a little person that has never done this activity with her mother before. I cannot recall if she was with Dad and I the last time that we painted pumkins together back in Longmont several years ago.
Ashleigh went all in and added a few written words on her pumpkin since I had added Happy Halloween, 2008 to mine. She added her name, and the phrase, I so pretty! She cracks me up! She even went as far as to add two faces to her pumkin.
I believe she was telling me this face was Jackson. A boy that goes to her school. She kept saying his name over and over again. I think she is crushing. I can't believe how much she is like her mother! I'm really in for the long haul!
Once we were finished painting our pumkins, we set them aside and there was paint left over on our little paint dish. Asheligh asked that we both paint our pumkins on a piece of paper. She handed me mine as she began work on hers. I think she had a different idea of what I was suppose to do, but in the end, she liked the picture that I painted for her!
I'm glad that I took the time to sit with Ashleigh and do an activity with her. Sometimes we let life rush by us without stopping to see what's in front of us. Before I know it, she will be an adult and all I will have left are my memories of her! I LOVE YOU ASHLEIGH. 
