My favorite part of Halloween

Remember this guy? My lone little pumpkin? I was so sure that would be all my plant produced, but I ended up with six lovely pumpkins, three of them jack o' lantern sized. Pumpkins (specifically, pumpkins for jack o' lanterns) were the only thing Danny asked me to grow in my garden this year. I was so worried I wouldn't have much of a crop, but it turned out okay, I guess!



I am the first to admit, I am a total Halloween scrooge. I don't like scary stuff. I don't get into costumes, and I avoid drama like the plague. I find real life scary enough, thankyouverymuch. But of course, my kids love Halloween. Danny even told me that Halloween is better than Christmas, although I suspect proximity to the date is mostly responsible for his feelings. But my hubby loves Halloween, too, and I find myself dragged into the festivities more and more each year. Groan....



But there's one part I do love. I LOVE carving jack o' lanterns. My inner cheapskate was doubly pleased this year when I realized that the money I spent on my pumpkin plant was about a quarter what it would have cost us to buy a pumpkin at a pumpkin patch - whoohoo!!




We carved pumpkins last night - I sacrificed two of my beautiful squashes to the festivities. I will save the other smaller (and likely more delicious) pumpkins for baking this winter.









Scooping out the pumpkin guts is the best part, no?

Okay, so maybe the kids weren't so sure about that.

We had heated debate over round vs. square eyes, and the number of teeth on our collective jack o' lantern. R had the sense to take the reigns when his turn to carve came around, and designed a pumpkin with no input from the peanut gallery. As you might imagine, that went a bit smoother.

They liked both equally.

Now we're all set for Halloween. I still need to turn a pillowcase into a ghost costume for Rome, but even with my ....ahem.... limited... seamstress skills, that should be a pretty quick project. Danny has a loaner pirate costume (Jack Sparrow is his new love) and Lina has some kitty ears (she says she's going to be a scary kitty.) Should make for good pictures, no?

Of course, we're supposed to get up to a foot of snow in the next twenty-four hours, so I guess we'll have to wait and see.

See, I told you real life was scary enough.