Mom Blogs at MomDot

Why not add a little life to your pumpkin carving this season and try a pumpkin monster? Have everyone in your family carve a pumpkin (or two) then follow our directions to assemble a serious WOW factor to your neighborhood. Better yet host a pumpkin-carving party and invite all your friends and serve toasted cinnamon-sugar pumpkin seeds and hot chocolate to get the party started.

Here's how you make it!  Get this stuff:

MATERIALS:

• 1 24" container

• Bricks 

• 5 to 6 strings of tiny white lights 

• Pumpkin Preserver 

• Ivy for the hair 

• Hand saw 

Then do this:

step one: Carve your pumpkins! Depending on how tall you want your monster to be, you'll need about 6 or 8 finished pumpkins. Spray the inside of your finished pumpkins with Pumpkin Preserver. This will keep your guy from looking like a pile of goo by Halloween night.

step two: Fill the container with something heavy to keep the broomstick and the container stable.  Try bricks or a bag of potting soil.

step three: Before you insert the broomstick into the container, make sure it isn't too long. Lay your pumpkins on the ground in the order you plan to stack them. Lay the broomstick down alongside the pumpkins to see if you need to cut it. The end of the broomstick should stop in the center of the very top pumpkin.

step four: Carve holes in the bottom of each pumpkin. The broomstick should fit well through the hole. Next, carve a 3"  hole in the back of each pumpkin for the lights to go into.

step five: Stack 'em up! Put the broomstick through each pumpkin. Keep them centered on top of each other. Top off your monster with ivy vines for hair.

step six: Let there be light! To make the totem pole extra bright, we put one string of tiny white lights in each pumpkin. You can use one string of lights for every two pumpkins if you want.

Now give each other a high five and get ready for the ooh's and ahh's from everyone on your block!

****  Please note!!!  A similar version of this article can also be seen on www.digthedirt.com and iVillage.com  *****