Pumpkins and Spice and all things Nice

I am a woman that enjoys conveniences. I am all for the packaged meals and cakes from a box. I rarely, if ever, make anything completely from scratch. So imagine the look on my face when my sweet three year old little boy requests making a pumpkin pie from real pumpkins. You mean.... no pumpkin in a can?! Nope, not for Isaac. Though I often detest cooking and baking, I couldn't turn down this fun and interesting experience with my son. He has become quite the little helper in the kitchen. He has this little table he sits on so he can reach whatever we are making at the moment. It is actually an old microwave stand. I am not sure how much longer it is going to stand up under his growing weight. Anyway, back to the story at hand.

So we buy some pumpkins and find a recipe (Online - none of my cook books even had a pumpkin pie recipe. Now I know why.Who in their right mind would spend an hour hacking away at a pumpkin anyway?!) Isaac was excited to get his hands on the gooey mess inside, but that only lasted about 5 minutes. Then I was left to finish the hard part of the job all alone. Do you even know how tough it is to cut the rhine away from the pumpkin meat? Not pretty! I even have an injury to prove it!Once the pumpkin was cooked it was all down hill from there. Isaac rejoined the cooking charade and the end result was fabulous. Pretty proud of our homemade pumpkin pie (okay, so we cheated and used pre-made pie crusts - shhhh, don't tell)!! All in all, I would not recommend pumpkin pies from scratch - GO BUY THE CAN!! However, I would recommend making the most out of every minute of quality time with your children. I thoroughly enjoyed Isaac's enthusiasm and the sparkle in his eye as we spent time together doing something he wanted to do.
Oh and by the way, did you know pumpkin splatter can cement to most, if not all objects. Sigh