On Jack O'Lanterns and Overachievers

Every year the boys and I carve jack o'lanterns, where by "the boys and I" I mean that I let them watch me while I work on some ridiculously complicated design that I've decided that we just MUST have in order to win at Halloween.

The last few years have been a little superhero heavy, with some Mickey Mouse thrown in for good measure.   These creations take hours and are not without considerable sacrifice on my part.  The Batman I carved last year reduced several of my fingers to bloody nubs but I just kept on going and saw it through.   I'm such a good Mama that way.

See what I mean?

When it was time to do our carving this year, I had a plan all mapped out in my head about how it should go.  "Hey guys!" I started gleefully, "Since we are all dressing up as The Avengers this year (oh yeah, it's going to be EPIC) wouldn't it be cool and awesome if we carved our jack o'lanterns to look like the Avengers, too?"  I fully expected them to just go on along with my plan, because HELLO! - it was an awesome plan.  

"Oh I know," Zachary said excitedly, "I know what kind I want!"

I smiled to myself, because I was sure he was drinking the kool-aid and was totally on board with with my plan at this point.

"I want mine to have triangles for eyes, and a triangle nose, and a jaggedy scary mouth!"

"Um, you mean like a REGULAR OLD JACK O'LANTERN?!?!?!" I asked incredulously.

"Oh yeah!" he said.  "That sounds PERFECT!"

"I WANNA CAT!" Cooper yelled.  Thanks for backing me up there, kid.

I may have negotiated longer and stronger than I'd care to admit to try to get them on board with my awesome plan, but they held firm and it did occur to me that really this was supposed to be fun for them so I should probably just let it go.

So finally I did.

When carving day came, Zack changed his mind and decided on a scary scull, and Cooper held on to his cat idea, and they had a blast helping me get the pumpkins cleaned out and ready.

When it came time to make the first cut, I sighed a little to myself then let my dreams of matching Avengers pumpkins go, once and for all.

And you know what?

I'm glad I did.