pumpkins!

I really love Halloween. I just think it is so much fun, and people come up with such creative costumes! It's always been such a great time, and this year was no different. Although this might have been my first "adult" halloween in that I didn't really go out or do anything very special but stayed at home and greeted trick-or-treaters. For some reason kids in our neighborhood were really excited or just craving that sugar rush? I don't know why, but our first kids came to the door around 11:00am with no costumes on. It was weird. After a couple of groups came by with only a mask or a hastily put on crown I was getting pretty disappointed, grumbling about "kids these days..". BUT then a little boy waddled up to the door with a homemade Thomas the Tank Engine costume that had a train around him made out of cardboard and secured with suspenders. It was awesome. He (or his parents I suppose) redeemed my faith. After that we did get a lot of kids that were decked out, so many that we ran out of candy! Another one of my favorite things about the holiday is carving pumpkins. My parents just sent me a package and on the top of it was a picture of my mom, Micah and I carving a pumpkin together and I couldn't have been more than two or three, and I look pretty delighted! My problem is that I always have trouble squeezing in the time for carving, and this year was no different. After organizing a night where people came over for the sole purpose of carving pumpkins, I was somehow left with five untouched pumpkins and no jack-o-lanterns in sight. This was last weekend, so yesterday JP and I took them all outside and went at them full force. We each carved two and had a lot of fun doing it. JP went traditional and I kept with the animal theme of the past few years and carved an owl and an octopus that maybe looks kind of like a spider. Afterwards we roasted the seeds and (with inspiration from my brother) made some tasty enchiladas. Yum. It was a pretty great holiday. On to some pictures:

Hope you had an excellent holiday too!!