Jack o’lanterns

Yesterday we brought out our knives and creativity to make this year’s jack o’lanterns. The cast of characters from left to right below are: Triangle Man, Mummy, Pumpkin Eater and Owl.

Ready for their close-ups:

Pumpkin Eater by Mary…

Owl by Sophia…

Mummy by Mary (on behalf of Sebastian who opted out of carving a pumpkin this year)…

And last, but not least, Triangle Man by Mike…

Happy Halloween everyone!  Be safe and don’t eat too much candy.  🙂

Happy Halloween!

Sophia and I created the first of our three jack-o-lanterns last Sunday.  We lovingly call him “cleaver”.

Cleaver

Last night Mike and Sebastian started on our other pumpkins.  Mike prepped one and let me take over to create a creepy faced jack-o-lantern.  Sebastian did his own from start to finish.

Creepy Face & Scream

Now that Sebastian is too old for trick-or-treating, he used our tickets for tonight’s UMD hockey Halloween game and asked three friends to join him.  Mike dropped the boys off at the arena and came home to escort “Amelia Earhart” around our neighborhood.

Amelia

Sophia trick-or-treated for a little over an hour and covered the whole neighborhood. She completed a very successful candy gathering mission.

Wishing everyone a happy and safe Halloween!

Halloween Preparations

We spent the weekend getting into the Halloween spirit by attending Glensheen Mansion’s Halloween Spooktacular event, carving pumpkins and prepping Halloween costumes.  I just have to start with this photo because I think it is my favorite of the weekend.  We also found out from the veterinarian that Daphne’s tumor was benign and the margins were clean.  She is a healthy and happy Boxer!

Boxer O'Lantern And Daphne

 

Back to the Glenshen Spooktacular ~  With hundreds of Jack ‘O Lanterns illuminating the seven acre grounds of Glensheen mansion, we couldn’t help but go and get inspired for our own pumpkin carving.  There were many of the traditional carvings and some that caught our eye including SpongeBob, Tinkerbell, pirates, owls and other amazing designs.  Without a tripod, it was impossible to photograph the glowing pumpkins.  We did take a few photos along the way using flash so that we could capture some of the unique pumpkins.

Spooktacular
Rotting Pumpkins
Pumpkin Ravine
Front Hall Staircase
Eerie Path
At The Creepy Boathouse

 

The outdoor tour ended with roasting marshmallows over a fire pit and making yummy s’mores.  The perfect way to end a chilly evening.

S'more

 

Today we started the day by gutting our pumpkins and then jumped right into carving.  Sebastian and Sophia enjoyed getting their hands inside the “guts” and pulling out all the stringy mess including the much coveted pumpkin seeds.  We saved every seed so that we can roast them in the oven.  Mike and the kids enjoy the salty, crunchy treat.

The Guts
Carving
Little Helper
Pumpkin Seeds

 

Sebastian carved his pumpkin by himself.  Mike helped tape the pattern on the pumpkin and Sebastian took it from there.  Here is his finished spooky pumpkin.

Spooky Face

 

Sophia chose a Dracula pattern for her mini pumpkin.

Dracula

 

And because I needed an extra challenge this year, I chose a Boxer.  It was time-consuming, but not nearly as difficult as I thought it would be.

Boxer
Jack O'Lantern Trio

 

I don’t think Daphne was quite as excited about her pumpkin portrait as I was.  However, she did feel the need to lick the boxer pumpkin’s ears…but I guess that’s not unusual.  She licks everyone.

Really? You Think It Looks Like Me?

 

Can’t wait for costumes and candy tomorrow…