The challenge was to give the Asda team a Halloween scare by carving one of their pumpkins. Challenge accepted! So you are probably wondering why our pumpkin does not feature fangs, a scary scar, or eery eyes.
The fact of the matter is, the thing that made our pumpkin carving session frightening was that I invited 28 children to wield sharp tools to carve this pumpkin at a Light Up The Dark party I helped organise at our village church.
It's all credit to Asda that using three of their fabulous efficient carving kits and one of their (frankly bargain priced) pumpkins (a steal at 50p!) not one child came away dripping blood or sporting real scars to make their Trick or Treating costumes for tomorrow terrifyingly realistic.
They were supervised by an adult. (Well, by my husband but legally he is an adult) but I was still concerned that the scooping and carving would prove to be hard work and dangerous.
In the past you see I have scoffed at the need for carving kits and attacked previous pumpkins using a carving knife, potato peeler and a serving spoon. Generally this results in me getting sweaty and grumpy and the children drifting away, bored, as the hours pass and the pumpkin is still winning the battle against being carved. There may have been carving-related injuries (mine) in the past too.
One of the Asda carving kits we used contained stencils and the children used one of these to create their happy chappy. They had so much fun!
The point of our Light Up The Dark party is to create a positive environment at this time of year which is not just about sweets (although we have lots of those!) We organise games and crafts and encourage the children to be creative and to have fun, sharing and showing off their own shining lights of talent, joy and friendship.
So that's why our pumpkin is smiling. He was happy to see all those children having a great time. So we probably won't win any prizes for scariness - unless you stop for one minute and imagine being in a room with 28 sugared up children all wanting to hack at a vegetable with sharp and pointy things. Insert shudder of horror here.
Disclaimer: We received a pumpkin and carving kits to enter the Asda Petrifying Pumpkin challenge.
The fact of the matter is, the thing that made our pumpkin carving session frightening was that I invited 28 children to wield sharp tools to carve this pumpkin at a Light Up The Dark party I helped organise at our village church.
It's all credit to Asda that using three of their fabulous efficient carving kits and one of their (frankly bargain priced) pumpkins (a steal at 50p!) not one child came away dripping blood or sporting real scars to make their Trick or Treating costumes for tomorrow terrifyingly realistic.
They were supervised by an adult. (Well, by my husband but legally he is an adult) but I was still concerned that the scooping and carving would prove to be hard work and dangerous.
In the past you see I have scoffed at the need for carving kits and attacked previous pumpkins using a carving knife, potato peeler and a serving spoon. Generally this results in me getting sweaty and grumpy and the children drifting away, bored, as the hours pass and the pumpkin is still winning the battle against being carved. There may have been carving-related injuries (mine) in the past too.
One of the Asda carving kits we used contained stencils and the children used one of these to create their happy chappy. They had so much fun!
The point of our Light Up The Dark party is to create a positive environment at this time of year which is not just about sweets (although we have lots of those!) We organise games and crafts and encourage the children to be creative and to have fun, sharing and showing off their own shining lights of talent, joy and friendship.
So that's why our pumpkin is smiling. He was happy to see all those children having a great time. So we probably won't win any prizes for scariness - unless you stop for one minute and imagine being in a room with 28 sugared up children all wanting to hack at a vegetable with sharp and pointy things. Insert shudder of horror here.
Disclaimer: We received a pumpkin and carving kits to enter the Asda Petrifying Pumpkin challenge.