Happy Halloween!

Another of our must-do Halloween traditions is to carve pumpkins, which (because Travis was on call) we were able to barely sneak in the night before Halloween.
Since Monsters University stuff has been EVERYWHERE lately, and has given Grace and Bethany an interest in monsters, Trav thought this silly monster design would be a fun choice.

 

Poking out the design:

 

The finished product:

 

Rarr!

To be honest, after seeing some of my friends amazing pumpkin designs over the last few weeks, I fell into the comparison trap (aka "my pumpkin design isn't going to measure up"), and I'd kind of lost enthusiasm for pumpkin carving this year. I went through what felt like a LOT of different designs in my head (none of them seeming interesting or creative enough) until I stumbled on one that got me excited about carving again--doing our family as pumpkin heads (which morphed into just being charicatures of each of us).

 

Here's how it played out: 

Step 1: Sketching the design on the pumpkin:
Bethany and I: 

Travis and Grace:

Step 2: Carving. 2 hours and a 2 very tired arms later...all carved out!

 

Step 3: Lights (which required flashlight illumination)!

 

 

 

All of us:

 

Spooky effect:

 

In the end, I was SO glad I didn't succumb to my bad attitude, give up, and just do a pre-made design. It was neat to really study each of my family members' faces and decide how to portray their unique features (My big smile and "beady" eyes; Bethany's crescent shaped eyes, curly hair, and dimples; Grace's big beautiful eyes and excited expressions; and Travis' arresting eyes and mouth). It felt so good to be creative and to see my vision realized (especially with mine and Bethany's faces) and have a creative design that I was really happy with after all. Lesson learned. :)

 

The girls LOVED both of our pumpkins. It was cute to see them laying on the floor in front of them, studying them. :)

Then Halloween Day of course meant wearing Halloween shirts and trick or treating!

Grace posing for me in her Halloween outfit.

Just as we were heading out the door to head to our friends (Levi and Christine Berry's) house for dinner and trick or treating, Travis got called back in to work. :( It was a bummer (though we knew it might happen), but the girls and I packed up and headed over anyway.

We chatted with friends and ate chili and cornbread, then put on the girls' costumes and headed out into the rainy and windy night!

 

Scooby Doo Grace. She was so excited to wear it and especially to wear face paint!

Princess Bethany (who in princess fashion decided she'd rather not dress up after all, so I just threw her dress over her Halloween outfit and called it good):

 

Excited to head out!

Grace was FASCINATED with everyone's decorations, especially the spooky ones. Pretty sure she liked seeing them even more than getting candy (I know this actually since she had to be reminded to get her candy after staring at a neighbors' decorations for a few minutes, and because, when I asked her later what her favorite part of the night was, she said it was seeing the floating ghost decoration at someone's house. Silly girl! :) ).

They were MAJOR troopers in the blustery weather and didn't complain at all!

 

After trick or treating, we went back to the Berry's for delicious cinnamon rolls and wassail and more chatting. And thankfully, Travis finally got done and was able to join us there for a little bit before it was time to head home.
Even with all the little "hiccups", it was still a fun Halloween!