Pumpkin Carving - 2023

This year, with the garage heated and a table already set up (leftover from the girls' Halloween party with friends), we opted to carve pumpkins out there.  It's amazing to look back at last year's pictures and see they kids out on the back deck carving their pumpkins in balmy weather.  This year was definitely much chillier and more representative of late October in Michigan.

One of the most exciting parts for the kids is that initial "pulling the top off and looking at how many seeds there are inside."

Then comes the daunting task of actually scraping all of the said seeds out.  

This girl takes such pride both the clean-out of the pumpkin and its design.

 

I get a little choked up thinking that we really only have 2 more Halloweens at home with this girl before she starts to spread her wings.

All together at one table enjoying one of our favorite Halloween traditions:

Jimmy soon decided that it would easier to take off his sweatshirt and get right into the action.

I wasn't sure what design Sophia had chosen and I kept asking for a hint ... but she would not oblige.

Oooey and gooey.

Deep in concentration:

Jack told me what look he was going for on his pumpkin and I helped cut the design and he finished it up.

In the meantime, Mia (who is about 15 years old now!), wandered out into the garage and found a comfortable seat to watch and listen to all of the action.

All finished and on display on the front porch!

These are going to look great with lights on inside of them!

Sam turned hers into a fish!

And Sophia's was a detailed ghost that really glowed beautifully!

A Friend Halloween Party

The girls approached me earlier in the month about having a Halloween Party for a few of their friends at our house.  The still love trick-or-treating, but as they get older, they love having their friends over to hang out even more.  And, both Steve and I are 100% in agreement that we want them to have their friends over to our house whenever they would like.  Throw in a good theme and a few decorations -- and I am ALL IN.

I enjoy being creative and mixing things up whenever I can, so I brainstormed on a few festive treats to serve.

Fruits and veggies are so much more fun when their is a mermaid skeleton laid out on the platter, right?!

Edible mice made similarly to cake pops but then rolled in cocoa powder with almond slices for ears and black licorice for tails.

Sophia and Ainsley worked hard on their spider pops and I think that they turned out absolutely adorable:

Later, we served drinks with "blood," also known as raspberry syrup added via a syringe to Sprite.  

The girls enjoyed pizza (of course!) inside and then we heated the garage so that they could have popcorn (with ALL the Halloween candies added to it ... including gummy brains).  

Perhaps the highlight of the whole event was the Halloween Family Feud game that I had put together.  With some help from Etsy and my own editing, the girls had a blast playing on teams and trying to guess all of the top answers in each category.  The whole thing was digital so we played it on the projector and it was complete with sound and buzzers.  I anticipate that we will use a version of this again at a future party, for sure.

Later, the girls came back inside and set up their "beds" down in the basement.  It was a hodge-podge assortment of mattresses and bedding, but it worked out perfectly and everyone stayed toasty warm.

The next morning, the girls came upstairs for a full breakfast (homemade French toast sticks, bacon, juice and fruit) and after the girls got picked up by their parents, we sent to work bringing pumpkins in to prepare them for carving.