10.30.2013

Life Lessons {Halloween edition}

Oh, hey there...it's been awhile, hasn't it? 

Despite my lack of enthusiasm for blogging lately, life is marching along and things are going quite well.  Like the rest of the Internet (well, the northern-hemisphere set of it anyway, I guess?), we are enjoying fall, pumpkins, and slightly cooler temperatures.  No pumpkin spice lattes here, though.  I do not share in the popular affinity for all things pumpkin-flavored.  Pumpkins are only for carving and decoration in my house.

Speaking of pumpkin carving, that's a fall activity that was a first for our family this year.  I realized Jeremy and I had never carved one together, and that the girls had really never even seen a real jack-o-lantern up close.  (We always do the pumpkin patch and have them around, but usually they just sit on the porch and look pretty.  One year we let the girls paint pumpkins, which was...messy.)

So, about two weeks ago, I picked up a good-sized pumpkin that looked about right for a smiling jack-o-lantern, and we got to work.  As we began the process, Jeremy proved to be quite clueless about the whole process, and admitted he didn't think he'd had a carved pumpkin, EVER.  I have not verified this fact with his mom yet, so we'll see what she says about that.  That husband of mine 'misremembers' things pretty often.

I drew out a simple face and J got to work with the kitchen knife.  No fancy carving tools here (and yes, it shows).  We ended up with a passable jack-o-lantern, not bad at all for our first try!  A & M were thrilled, of course, and had many questions about each step of the process.  They enjoyed digging their hands into the pumpkin guts and cheered when we lit the candle.

One thing I forgot (or 'misremembered', maybe?) about carving pumpkins?  It's best to wait until a couple of days before Halloween.  Our two-week-old pumpkin is currently collapsing into a pile of mold and ooze on the front porch railing.  Jack-o-lantern fail.

On top of that Halloween misstep, rain and thunderstorms are predicted for tomorrow night.  Our neighborhood is a prime spot for trick-or-treaters, so we have stayed home the last few years and enjoyed handing out candy to the crowds of kids that come by.  I gave the girls a choice of staying home and handing out candy or doing a little trick-or-treating of their own this year.  Of course they chose trick-or-treating, and have been rather excited about it.  I'm still not at all sure what we'll do since it's likely to be pouring rain, but I have begun preparing them for a bit of disappointment.

BatGirl is in the house!

At least their pink rain boots will match the Batgirl costumes!

3 comments:

  1. I'm glad you are back! :) I hope the rain stays away (for you and for us) long enough to hit a few houses. Kindergarten is cutting into our social calendar, so we haven't gotten to wear our costumes yet. That is a pretty awesome batgirl costume. My girls have the black one, and they would be so jealous if they knew there was a pink one. We also haven't carved pumpkins this year, and they asked today. I wonder if it would be scarring to carve jack-o-lanterns in November? :)

    And hooray for another pumpkin-flavored hater. Pumpkin food would be a punishment for me. :)

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  2. I only remember carving a pumpkin once as a kid. When I was 5, we moved to Oneonta, to the boonies, at that. We never had trick-or-treaters, and never had another pumpkin. (That sounds sad as I type it!) ;)

    LOVE the Batgirl costume!!! I hope you all had a little bit of fun this year! Things are somewhat rescheduled for Friday night around here, so we plan to visit a couple new neighbors and walk a little bit with some friends. Fortunately A&B don't fully understand the idea of walking around and asking for candy (yet), so I continue to play that to my advantage and only take part in what I consider fun for the holiday. ;) [I hope that won't sound "sad" to the girls when they're parents themselves...HA!]

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  3. LOVE the batgirl outfit.

    We've just been invited to a party and the girls are to come as.......... princesses! and the boys as something else, I can't remember, but I'm thinking to just make them both superheroes...

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