Decorate, Carve, Bake, and Play! The possibilities of activities with pumpkins are endless. Here are a few ideas for your tween and teen!

Decorate

Bring out the supplies and get creative. Paint, glitter, stickers, pipe cleaners, yarn and more! Let your tween or teen choose the items they want and see what they come up with. You can also check out some of these sites for ideas:

Painted Pumpkins

Decorate Pumpkins

Carve

There are so many different ways you can carve a pumpkin. You can even make it a contest with the family and have everyone choose their favorite when they are done.

Here are a few tips and tricks:

Step by step instructions for carving

Pumpkin Carving Ideas

Bake

Make a delicious treat that requires no baking and only a few ingredients:

Pumpkin Dessert Dip

Ingredients Needed:

• 1/2 cup Maple Syrup
• 2 Tsp. Pumpkin Pie Spice
• 15 oz. Canned Pumpkin (not pie filling)
• 8 oz Whipped Cream Cheese Dippers (Apple Slices, Graham Crackers, Vanilla Wafers, etc.)

Instructions:

1. Combine cream cheese, maple syrup, and spice in bowl.
2. Continue to whisk until smooth.
3. Enjoy dip with your choice of dippers.

Play

Use pumpkins for a twist on some traditional games. Bowling or Tic-Tac-Toe anyone?

Pumpkin Bowling

Supplies needed: empty plastic bottles and one pumpkin

• Remove the stem of the pumpkin and it is now your ball
• Place the bottles in a triangle formation for your pins
• Get Bowling!

Extra Challenge: Make the distance of your pins farther and/or add sand/rice/beans to the bottles to make your pins harder to knock over.

Pumpkin Tic-Tac-Toe

Supplies needed: 10 mini pumpkins.

• Paint or use markers to create x and o on the top or paint them two different colors
• Create board with chalk or tape
• Start Playing!

Consider picking up your pumpkins from a locally owned store or take a trip to one of the many pumpkin patches in our area. Tag your masterpieces with @YMCASeattle