Painted Pumpkins - Easy Alternative to Carving

Pretty much the entire month of October has been sweltering hot here.  And I've had no time or energy to carve pumpkins or do any fall activities.

I kept promising to take my kids to the pumpkin patch so today I finally came through on my promise.  We first drove to the grocery store to get pumpkins at a fraction of the cost of the ones at the patch. (Sorry I'm too cheap to spend $10/ pumpkin). Then we went and played at the pumpkin patch by our house.  They have a little petting area for bunnies and goats at Giordano Farms.

The past few years I have carved the pumpkins.  But it's honestly just so much work for me, and I don't think any of us enjoy it.  So today I decided to have the kids paint their pumpkins.  There are so many cute ideas online!  I was lazy so we just used what we had on hand.  I put the blue painter's tape on their pumpkins to form the first letter of their names.  Then they just painted all over however they wanted. 

Peel the painter's tape off and you're done!

I wanted to do something cute on Jael's pumpkin so I decided to paint it Minnie Mouse theme to match her costume.  

I first spray-painted the whole thing red. Then I used black paint on the stem.  And I made spots on it using white acrylic paint.

I painted a "J" for her name with black paint.  Then tied a ribbon around the stem.  It turned out cute!

This is such a fun alternative to carving pumpkins... Next year I want to try the glow-in-the-dark paint!