Pumpkin Day came and went this year in a flurry of activity as it always does. Being politically correct, the kids have a Fall party each year on "halloween" where they play games, make pumpkin crafts, get tons of candy, and even carve Jack-o-lanterns. Everyone is dressed in black and orange, as certainly no costumes are allowed. Any parent who even remotely cares about his/her child will dare not miss to make an appearance at some point during the festivities.
Being as organized as usual, Laura, Thomas, and I made a visit to the pumpkin patch that morning after dropping the kids off at school. Being the last day of October, pickings were slim, to say the least. After searching the fields for quite a while, we had to give up our efforts and succumb to settling for pre-picked pumpkins waiting for adoption in the pumpkin barrel. Some had quite interesting shapes and colors, but we were just happy at that point to have found seven that were not rotted from one end to the other.
Bringing Melissa's "fresh" pumpkin with me, I headed off to her school to assist her in a carving project. The cafeteria was jam packed with third graders elbow to elbow in pumpkin goo and guts. Little knives flailing about, and some kind of electric chainsaw carving device at one of the back tables. After about 3 revisions, Melissa decided on the face she wanted to carve, and we set to work. She did her best, and enjoyed being part of the creative process. A class picture revealed all the kids looking pretty satisfied with their end results. OK...one down, six more to go....all before dinner!
The beautiful warm weather of the day provided us the perfect opportunity to carve pumpkins out on our deck. There was plenty of room, little mess to clean up on the glass table top, and so lovely to be spending the time outdoors. I can't think of any other halloween being so nice...it is usually windy and freezing around here by this time of year.
The kids each got to work carving their pumpkins from the minute they walked in the door from school. I think we had it all done in record time....certainly less than one hour. Nothing like leaving it all to the last minute!A quick meal, some costume changes, and the kids were ready to gather candy by six.
Thomas was adorable as he waddled around in a cozy penguin suit. By the second house, he was already onto the trick or treating thing, and was having great fun gathering candy into his little pumpkin bucket.
Laura made a cute Tinkerbell, though she rarely left the wagon due to her irrational fear of animals that were potentially lurking behing each and every door. Crispy was Boba Fett from Star Wars, and Jonny was a backwards Darth Vader. Melissa was our pop star diva whose world was a stage that night.
Our house was amazing. Bob(Mario) had done up the trees in stobe lights and theater lighting shaded the front of the house. Lights danced and fog machines exhaled to the tune of Alvin and the Chipmunks' rendition of "Witch Doctor". Along with about 10 cute inflatables, our house was quite the attraction. This is nothing...they need to come back at Christmas!
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