October 31: Final Day - Carved Pumpkins, Masks, and Thanks

Unlit/Lit - Full Family

Guess what day it is?

A.   Hump Daaaaaay

B.    Day 31 of my 31 days of blogs

C.    Halloween

D.   All of the above

That’s right. It’s D. 

Today I’m dressed as Minnie Mouse. (I ordered myself the CUTEST apron from Amazon, to wear for actual cooking. But when it arrived, I realized how perfect it would be as part of a Minnie Mouse Halloween costume, so I put it to the side. After tomorrow, I will commence using it for its intended purpose.) I’m dropping off mummy cookies and monster marshmallow-topped cupcakes for school Halloween parties. I’m attending a parade to see Cleopatra and a vampiress. You know I’ve got deliciousness simmering in the slow cooker. Later, I’ll help my husband move our animatronic decorations out of our house to the driveway where they’ll amuse and/or scare trick-or-treaters. I’ll light the pumpkins we carved last night. Candy will be distributed. Candy will be collected. Candy will be commandeered. Bellyaches will be had. Baths will be taken. Bedtime will be fought (by kids) and longed for (by adults). In other words, HALLOWEEN, Baby!

Speaking of those pumpkins, here’s a look at this year’s masterpieces. They turned out great, if I do say so myself! (My husband really needs to break away from the same old pumpkin face year after year after year, don’t you think?) Side note: my pumpkin was a "story book pumpkin" variety which is why it look different than the others. When I bought it, it was all white. As it aged, it got those interesting orange and green veins running through it. When I cut into it, it was easier to clean than normal pumpkins, too--less stringy--and it smelled like melon instead of that sickly pumpkin stench. Overall, it was a delightful changeup. 

My zombie - see that cool veiny storybook pumpkin? 

Older daughter's cat
(though my husband did most of the inner pumpkin clean-out,
and I did 2/3 of the carving (eyes & whiskers), so...)

Younger daughter's "painter boy"
("he's a painter because he's smiling, so he must be painting himself")

My husband's "classic" jack o lantern

Oh, and here we are having fun trying on masks (on two different occasions!) at Spirit Halloween & Walmart.

(Edited in March 2019. I had to delete some of the photos of my kids wearing scary costume masks because, apparently, they were considered "shocking content" by google. Yikes! Who knew? Anyway, I left the non-gory ones. Now I just have to hope my mad carving skills aren't TOO good that my pumpkin gets somehow flagged.)

This is just plain silly!

The scariest mask of all time! 

Thank you all for joining me for this year’s fall blog fest! I hope you enjoyed the content and found some new (and delicious) things to try and love. It's been a pleasure hosting you and I hope you'll continue to check in to see whatever else I've got cookin' up over in my world. 

As always, be safe and have a happy Halloween, friends! 

**I have no affiliation or relationship with any of the brands mentioned or linked in this post. All opinions and experiences expressed herein are my own.**