Pumpkin Painting

Since paining the pumpkins was such a hit last year with Cadence, I wanted to give the girls a chance to do it again this year. I dressed them up in some of my old t-shirts that I wouldn't mind never getting the paint out of (though acrylic is pretty washable all said and done, I still have some clothes with stains). So, decked out in "mommy dresses", the girls sat on the back porch with their paint palettes and foam brushes and painted the pumpkins we bought them at Dewberry Farm (since Cadence would not let us leave pumpkinless!)

Cadence was very particular about how she placed her paint. When I pointed out she'd missed the bottom part of her entire pumpkin she scooted onto her belly and very seriously painted the blank spots. She had this intense look of concentration the whole time. I was too busy enjoying the moment to catch it on film, though.
The pumpkins were fairly small, so I happily bought a larger jack-o-lantern pumpkin when we went to the store. I let the girls paint the smaller ones themselves, but added my own finger-painting technique to the bigger one that we all painted together. Neither Cadence nor Megan were too keen on ditching their brushes to use their fingers, no matter how much I played it up, though.

By the end of our painting experience, both pieces of cardboard I put the girls paint on was a big goopy mess of brown paint. But the girls had a blast. I bought some foam stickers specifically for jack-o-lanterns for a dollar and decorated the pumpkins with silly faces once the paint dried.
The girls haven't seen the finished product yet, but I think they'll enjoy it in the end. Once they've seen them and admired them, I'll put them on our front lawn. Trying to decide between in front of the tree in the middle of the yard, or in front of the bushes that line our walkway. Nobody decorate for Halloween around here and it's kind of sad. Debating cobwebs in my walkway bushes still, now that the rain forecast has been changed to sunny all week. Not sure I want to deal with picking the cobwebs out, though...

And before you ask, yes, the larger pumpkin does have a goatee. That was supposed to be the vampire's hair, since the kit I bought had pieces for 4 pre-designed faces. So I snipped the sideburns and made a goatee for the pumpkin, lol.