Our Pumpkin Carving Twist

For various reasons, my family does not observe Halloween. We do, however, enjoy all of the festivities that celebrate the fall season from hayrides and maize mazes to pumpkin patches and apple cider. While autumn up north was usually too cold to enjoy, moving down south has made it my favorite season.

Though we do not celebrate Halloween in the traditional sense of Trick or Treating, haunted houses and candy, this year we decided to use many of the Halloween "props" around us to give our fall celebration a unique, child-friendly twist.

After spending an entire day at the local pumpkin patch, running for hours through the straw maze, going on tractor-drawn hayrides, and pushing the children around the pumpkin patch in a wheelbarrow, we decided to select a pumpkin to carve. It was my children's first pumpkin carving experience and, needless to say, they really enjoyed digging into it.

But we aren't big fans of the standard Jack-o-Lanterns and witch outlines, so we took it a different route.

My husband began carving his pre-selected design into the pumpkin...

The Transformers Autobot symbol.

Unique, indeed, but the children (and my husband) were thrilled.

And what better accessory to an Autobot pumpkin than a play costume of the one and only Optimus Prime?Now that's what I call a fall celebration for the kids!