Cookie Monster Pumpkin

I got an idea for a pumpkin after I came across this picture on the internets.

It seemed easy enough so I went for it.

Gather all your items.

-pumpkin  (I picked up mine from a local farm stand).

-blue paint or spray paint

-newspaper

-glue

-paintbrushes (different sizes)

-paper towels

-ping pong/table tennis balls

-black sharpie

-pen

-carving knife and scooper spoon  (not pictured)

First you want to wash your pumpkin.

Make sure you wash the bottom too.  I used my veggie brush to scrub the pumpkin real good.

Dry off your pumpkin.  Then take a pen and draw a circle for the lid so you know where you're cutting.  You can do this free hand too if you want.

I cut into the top of my pumpkin so I could get the guts out.  When I opened the lid I found pumpkin sprouts.  Yes, sprouts growing inside the pumpkin.  I feel like sprout babies know I will take care of them.  :)  How amazing that these little sprouts were inside the pumpkin.

I did leave a picture on the fbk page of the farm stand I got my pumpkin from and they loved it.  They said it's rare but it does happen.  We had gotten a lot of rain recently so maybe the moisture inside the pumpkin made the seeds sprout.

Seeds, sprouts and guts.

Here's one sprout.  I love it.

Seeds in the pumpkin scooper.

I saved some sprouts and put some in a cup of water in the kitchen window.  They are growing.  :)

After you have carved the lid and the mouth you can paint.  I had to do several layers of the blue paint.  My paint might not have been the best kind to use but I made it work.

After the paint has dried, glue the ping pong balls on the pumpkin.  Let them dry and then with a sharpie draw in the eyeballs.

Then it's time to take pictures of your cookie monster pumpkin.

You can't have a cookie monster pumpkin without freshly baked chocolate chip cookies.  These cookies are a  fresh batch of chocolate chip that I baked to enter into another fair.

How cute did this turn out?  :)

By the way....I entered this pumpkin into a fbk contest on Food Lion's fbk page.  I won 4th place and got a $25 gift card.  Yay me.  :)