Manhattan Beach Neighbors Delight In Painted Pumpkins For Fall

MANHATTAN BEACH, CA — With a porch decked out with colorful pumpkins, the kids in Mary Claire Orenic's Manhattan Beach neighborhood are having quite a bit of fun this fall. The longtime MB resident has taken it upon herself to make fall even more festive during the pandemic by painting pumpkins and displaying several on her front porch.

And her pumpkin effort also involves a village of sorts: Female college friends of her son's who attend USC that Orenic calls her "South Bay Daughters." With the help of these sand/beach volleyball athletes—Sara Hughes, Paige Hines, Jenna Belton and Terese Cannon—the Orenic household has become a pumpkin painting epicenter with a few spiders thrown in for good fun!

"We get together around once a week and sometimes do projects or watch movies outside," said Orenic. "We did the painting outside at a table with the appropriate social distancing. I like the variety and that everyone can do their own version of a pumpkin. There are no wrong or right way to do it—and they all look great."

Orenic delights in the smiles and expressions her front porch pumpkins elicit when kids walk by. "The best [part] is seeing the excitement on the kids’ faces," she said. "I did the large pumpkins from Monsters Inc. and the Minion because we have many children on my street and they all like to come visit the pumpkins!" She painted the smaller pumpkins for use in her fall table centerpiece.

Even the adults in town are noticing the colorful pumpkins. "I have had many positive comments and I also posted pictures on my IG story as I was making them for people to guess what I was painting.," said Orenic.

And where did the spiders come from? How did they get into the picture? Orenic made them to celebrate one of her South Bay Daughters' birthdays. "We ate them while painting the pumpkins," she noted.

So where did the mom who has no background in art and doesn't consider herself artistic get the idea for painting pumpkins? A few years back, on a trip to Kennebunkport, Maine, Orenic "saw some small painted pumpkins and I thought they looked great."

Now Manhattan Beach has a fun new tradition to start!