Pumpkin Smashing

A week after Halloween, the big boys, who carved their pumpkins, had to throw them into the garden - you know how they begin to look with wrinkled, sunken faces. They were protesting, until they found how squishy they already were. It might have been a challenge to get them to the garden in one piece if they waited any longer. Mike, Zach and I had used "Mr. Potatoe Head" parts, that were sold as Halloween costumes for Pumpkins this year. Since all we had done was drill holes for the pieces to stick into, our pumpkins lasted much longer. In fact, we just sent them out to the garden on Sunday. When we got home from church, I decided they had to go, bad spots were appearing. Pete thought he would be the cool teenager, and tried to jerk up the first one by the stem so he could take it, and chuck it into the garden. The look on his face when the stem just pulled off, along with the pumpkin skin around it was priceless as he looked at what he was holding in his hand. That was it, he grabbed it by the bottom, took it to the edge of the garden and chucked it, cheering as it smashed. Well, not be be out done, Zach wanted to smash his. These were big pumpkins so Pete helped him carry it to the garden and told him to throw it as hard as he could (not to worry, he could only send it in about 2 feet). Then was Mike's turn to dispose of his. Mike (never to be taken too seriously) did a granny throw, between his legs, straight up into the air, and down it came with a huge splat. Who knew.....I just would have tossed them into the garden. I didn't realize pumpkin smashing would become a competive sport in our house.