See The Most Creative Carved Pumpkins Ever In Lake Charles [PICTURES]

This time of year is a fun time to decorate because the fall colors are so pretty. As an added bonus Harvest Festival and Halloween celebrations provide more festive decorating opportunities. Pumpkins are always a cool way to decorate during the fall season, especially during Halloween!

My daughter's school always had pumpkin carving contests and each year the pumpkins got more and more extravagant. They would need to be fake, carvable pumpkins because they would serve as decorations for the school's book fair, which coincides with a costume and the pumpkin carving contest. What was really cool is that the carved and decorated pumpkins had to be based upon a character or storyline of an actual book.

We would always enter the contest, and begin with her favorite book at the time. From there we would start looking at various pumpkin carving ideas to help us decide which one would give her the best chance of winning the contest. It would be a family affair before it was all over. Her dad would do all the carving for obvious reasons, and I would do anything requiring scissors. My little girl was always good at drawing and painting, so 90% of the decorating was all her.

Below is a look at some of the pumpkins we entered into the T.S. Cooley Pumpkin Contest:

It really was a lot of fun putting them together. The carvable pumpkins we used came from Hobby Lobby, in case you are wondering. They are actually very easy to carve, last for a long time, and don't leave a mess. So, whether you are doing a school project at home or decorating pumpkins with LED lights for outside they are a great alternative. One year we did a Cookie Monster pumpkin like this! It came out so good and was pretty simple to make. We used foam for the eyes of course. We also cut the foam into the shape of cookies and used hot glue, light brown, and dark brown felt to make them look realistic.

Surprisingly, when it comes to carving or seasonal decorating there is no limit to what you can do with a pumpkin. A lot of folks prefer the traditional pumpkins to bake the contents and whip up a couple of pies, bread, or cookies. Do you like salty snacks? If you like sunflower seeds you'll love baked pumpkin seeds. Just wash the seeds in cold water, place them on a paper towel to dry, spread them out on a cookie sheet,  sprinkle a little salt on them, and bake them for 5 few minutes or so. They are so good!

Enjoy the fall and do a fun project with the family. Happy Harvest Fest and Halloween everyone!