Trick or Treat!

Happy Halloween!

My "plan" this year was to have pumpkins carved a day or two before Halloween so we wouldn't be rushing as we so often are. As with so many of my plans, they went out the window like a stiff breeze. Thirty minutes before we were to have friends arrive, I was still picking out a pattern for Allyson's pumpkin. Nicole's didn't get carved. I stuck a wooden scarecrow head and hands in it and it became our scarecrow pumpkin. In case you missed it, you can read about our adventure getting the pumpkins.

Normally, the girls help with the carving of the pumpkin. But Britt had (mercifully) come home early from work to rake the ridiculous amount of leaves in our front yard. (Yes, it was that bad.) The kids were more interested in "helping" Dad. This is something they look forward to every year. Britt and I, not so much.

So, while all this was going on, I was inside carving Allyson's pumpkin. I did get the girls to come in and help me clean out the guts. 

I have always loved carving pumpkins. I love the smell, the slimy feeling of cleaning out the insides, and the fun of picking out a great design and making it come to life. Well, since I had about 20 minutes, we made this pumpkin super simple. But I still thought it was unique. One of the things we like about this pumpkin was it's great stem. So, I decided to use that as a "focal point" (lol) and let it be the nose. Here is the final product. 

This year we had our friends, Doug and Sarah and their girls, Darcy and Holland, join us for Halloween. We had our annual jack-o-lantern pizza and Sarah brought the best pumpkin cookies.

Then went to our church festival. I didn't take a lot of pictures. They had tons of bounce houses, free candy, apple cider, kettle corn, and balloons. Inside they had activities and a kids show. The kids show was advertised as a "4D" experience. It really wasn't, unfortunately. But I think the kids enjoyed it anyway.

We found a group of princesses and had everyone's picture taken together.

Afterward we hit the neighborhood for trick or treating. 

One of the reasons our friends joined us for trick or treating this year was because their neighborhood wasn't so great. I assured them ours was fantastic. That's why I was a little confused when we went outside and almost every house had their lights out! Not sure what was up this year but I felt a little bad that our neighborhood probably wasn't any better than theirs. Oh well. The kids, as you can see in this video, had fun. (Although, after about the third house, Allyson pooped out. I carried her bucket and dad carried her.)

One of our neighbors always has fun Halloween decorations. (Although Holland was afraid to go up to the door because of a talking "head" they have on the side of the wall.)

Happy Halloween!