Like Moldy Jack-o-Lanterns

This Halloween post is a little old, kind of like the carved pumpkins still residing on our front porch. But like those pumpkins, it's not quite so old that it should just be thrown out entirely so I'm going to go ahead and document Halloween 2011. We kicked off Halloween eve with pumpkin carving.

This turned out to be a little too much hurry-up-and-wait for our kids. I hope that next year I remember to prep the pumpkins before inviting them to join me because by the time we got to scooping out the innards of the melon, both kids were losing focus. The faces were carved largely by Jeff and me because the kids were just done. Maybe the fact that we'd spent the afternoon at the Kansas City Zoo had something to do with that, too, but I'm not sure. I was really advocating that maybe we just paint the pumpkins. I was outvoted. Anyway...

I love that Wyatt felt the need to strip his shirt

Eventually we got all four pumpkins cleaned out and carved. Sadly I have no pictures of the finished products. Wyatt and I carved faces, Natalie chose a kitty face and Jeff carved a Raptor. They all looked lovely on our porch the next night for the hoards of kids soliciting candy.

After first claiming that he'd like to be a basketball player, then a football player, Wyatt changed his mind last minute and decided that he'd wear one of my costumes from childhood. Let's just be upfront about this: I was a complete and total nerd, which does a lot to explain that this vintage costume is none other than a roly poly. Yep, my mom held onto it for thirtyish years just using it as a polyfil vault over the years. With one wash, a restuffing and a few reattached legs, that roly poly was good to go.

Natalie, on the other hand, couldn't possibly commit to a costume concept and really couldn't even grasp what we were talking about. Some of you are undoubtedly thinking that I should've just told her what she was going to be, but that just means you don't really know Natalie. She needs to feel like she's part of the decision or it's just not going to happen. Luckily we were able to sell her on the idea of being the cute, comfy, inexpensive bumblebee from Target. I have issues spending a lot of money on one night's costume, so I'm thrilled the kids were easy-going in the end. Considering we had somewhere between one and two hundred trick-or-treaters in the neighborhood, it's also safe to say they had a great time in our kid-friendly neighborhood collecting a haul of candy.

So there you go, Halloween 2011 is in the books. Now maybe I should think about getting those pumpkins into tomorrow's trash.