2009 Family Pumpkin Carving Contest

A few days ago we had our annual family pumpkin carving contest again. It was alot of fun as usual. The dynamics of the contest changed this year with the expected results. The above jack-O-lanterns were only from members of my household. My wife and I carved our own pumpkins as expected. Hers is the toothy one on the far left. It won first place out of a total of nine entries. Her work has improved greatly over the last couple of years. Mine was the one with the sword through it which was made from the cut out portion of the mouth. It suprisingly only got fourth place. Now here is where things changed from previous years. My five year old drew his design for me to cut out which is the standard of our family for his age. It came in dead last and is the third from the left. Traditionally children too young to understand the meaning of this activity like my 23 month old are allowed to have a parent design and cut their pumpkin. However, this year due complaints from other jealous family members that this gave me 2 entries, we compromised on letting my 5 year old draw the the others while I cut it out. He used the same design as with his but I interpreted it a little differently and the result earned a second to last place finish and is seen on the far right. Happy Halloween to all!