Watermelon Fruit Bowl

We had a birthday party for my big 3 year old this weekend.  I always make a fruit plate with fruit dip for my girls.  I came across some pictures of some carved watermelon fruit bowls.  Many of them were too elaborate for my carving skills.  Here's a link for lots of great watermelon carving ideas: http://www.watermelon.org/watermelon_carving.asp

I grew up carving pumpkins every Halloween, but it's been a very long time.  My girls love to paint, so they paint beautiful pumpkins every year for Halloween.  Here's the watermelon I attempted to carve.  I used a strawberry cookie cutter for the decorations on the handle and hand carved a letter "J" for her name.  Any cute cookie cutters will work.  Attach the cutouts to the watermelon using toothpicks.  You can make this the day ahead and wrap tightly with plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator.  Wait to add the the watermelon balls and cut up fruit the day you plan on eating it-otherwise the watermelon creates lots of juice and it will become a mushy mess.