frank o' melon

This is what happens when your kids get older: one year they suddenly don't want to go to the pumpkin patch, not even to run through the corn maze, not even if we were to call up friends. It broke my heart.


We got all the way to Halloween Day without a pumpkin in the house, except for a few feeble little things we grew over summer. It wouldn't have mattered, except a jack o'lantern is required in our neighborhood if you are passing out treats. DH and I figured we'd pick something up when we went out for groceries. But there were none, no pumpkins at all. 


The did have...watermelons? In October? And I thought a watermelon might be easier to carve than a pumpkin, anyway, so we brought one home. I've never been good at carving pumpkins, but a watermelon seemed like fun.

It was pretty easy to slice off the top and hollow it out. At first I thought I'd go all the way to the white rind, but then realized the red flesh might be useful. So a tiny, last-minute layer of red is in there, too.

Here's the hair:

And here's where having a bit of red added some nice, bloodshot color to the eyes:

A little working of the scar, some neck plugs, and the Frank O' Melon is born:

I might look for watermelons next year, too.