Pumpkin Sail

Over the weekend we were lucky to have Nanny and Pop-pop visit us! They drove down hauling a couch for my mother (who just moved into a new apartment) and then stayed to see Lexi is the Primary program at church and do some Halloween activities with us. Pop-pop has a small pumpkin garden that he tends during the spring & summer so that he can share the pumpkins with friends during the fall. He brought down 4 pumpkins for us and helped Alexis to carve one.

Here Alexis is planning her pumpkin carving (by drawing it out on the paper):

Then Pop-pop cuts out the top:

And removes all the seeds (which we were sure to toast up & snack on later):

Then Dad & Pop-pop follow Alexis' design to bring her pumpkin to life:

On Sunday, we went down to the Harlem Meer to participate in the great Pumpkin Sail. Here are the girls with their pumpkins prior to sending them out on the water:

This was the collection table for pumpkins. Anyone who wanted could bring an already carved pumpkin and set it on the table. From here, volunteers would attach the pumpkins to previously assembled barges and send them in a golf cart to the other side of the Meer (which is basically just a really large pond). When we set down Ella's pumpkin, several people ooh-ed and ahh-ed over it and it got picked right up and set on a barge and loaded into the golf cart before I could even snap a picture! We were glad to know it would get sent out on the water, though. There were so many pumpkins that not all of them made it out.

Lined up awaiting transport to the far side of the lake:

This woman plays the musical saw. A musical saw, also called a singing saw, is the application of a hand saw as a musical saw. The sound created is an ethereal tone, very similar to a woman's clear voice. It was sort of eerie and appropriate for a Halloween celebration. This particular performer's site is here.

Grandma Susan broke her ankle (in a fluke accident while at the gym) only 3 days before this. We convinced her to join us on our adventure and she was a trooper hobbling through Central Park on her crutches!

Grandma, Nanny & Pop-pop

When they finally launched the pumpkins, we were disappointed to discover that without some sort of breeze/wind, there was no way they would float in our direction. For the most part, they just sort of floated where they were placed in the water and formed a big cluster of pumpkins. All the photos I took were really dark, so I'll just include one I found on the web so you get the idea. It was really quite delightful, and so fun to see our *holey* pumpkin out there on the water with light shining. Alexis' didn't make it out on the water, but she spotted it sitting on the grass close by (on a barge, even!). Before we left home she was hesitant to set her pumpkin out to sail. She said several times how she didn't really want to put it on the water. "I want to keep it!" She even wrote her name on it with permanent marker (which made identifying it later that evening a piece of cake). When she saw it on the grass she said, "Look! They didn't put my pumpkin in the water. Maybe they saw my name and knew I didn't want it to go out!"