October 31: Pumpkin Carving and Happy Halloween!

Well, we did it. It's finally Halloween.

Today, my slow-cooker is doing its thing; I'm wearing an orange top to the gym; I have a midday date with a Halloween parade; and, tonight after dinner, it'll be a trick-or-treating extravaganza.  

And also, because witches and goblins and the state of our country right now aren't quite frightening enough, I have a dentist's appointment.

Today also marks the thirty-first post of this month. (I don't know about you, but I'm exhausted.)

I had some favorites, for sure.

My Top-5:

* pumpkin spice Chex mix

* maple almond cranberry granola

* cinnamon pear streusel muffins 

* pumpkin spice cupcakes with cream cheese frosting

* orange cranberry mini muffins

(Yes. Clearly, I have a sweet tooth. And I'm sure I'll get hell for it at the dentist. Sigh.)   

You all seemed to have some faves, too. Based on the page-view stats this morning, the Top-5 most viewed posts were these:

* Mummy Apple Sauce Pouch & Epitaph Craft

* Apple Pie Truffles

* Apple Crumb Pies

* Trio of Beverages  and Espresso-Balsamic Roasted Chicken (TIED)

* Feet Loaf

Guess we have some apple and poetry-lovers out there! (Seriously. That epitaph one was the top-viewed post of the series!)

For today's final post, I wanted to share our carved pumpkins.

This was the first year I didn't help the girls clean out the innards of their pumpkins, and that I let them use the carving tools themselves. They did a great job. 

My oldest doesn't prefer touching the gunk. So I gave her gloves. Problem solved.

Emoji face! Look at those heart eyes

Expert carving

Speaking of expert...my pumpkin, scooped and scraped to perfection. This is how it's done, people!

 

Our one hiccup was that my youngest had to contend with a rotten pumpkin. I don't know if you've ever encountered this, but EW. It smelled and was off-color and oozy. Naaaasty.

Normal pumpkin insides

Rotten pumpkin insides (BLECH!)

Still, all that said, she ended up making a happy-looking pumpkin (which is her version of an emoji face) so alls well that ends well.

For my own pumpkin, I traced a few fall leaves on there and then carved them out. 

Traced leaves

Cut out - doesn't that look cool cut out like that??

Lit up. Happy fall!

My husband, of course, carved a scary pumpkin face. (Every year, it's the same thing. He's a traditionalist in the pumpkin department, that's fo sho.) 

Here's the whole gang all lit up.

 

Finally, thank you so much for spending the month of October counting down with me. I hope you found a few ideas to try yourself, and had some chuckles (with me? at me? Either is fine!) 

Here's to a safe, happy, treat-filled Halloween!