Halloween Sweets
Ryan and I baked and decorated 4 dozen cupcakes for the neighborhood costume party and parade. Ryan helped measure, mix, icing, and sprinkle the cupcakes but was conveniently MIA when it came time to clean up and do dishes! Unfortunately, the party was cancelled due to bad weather. Between the bags of candy we had purchased to hand out to trick-or-treaters and the haul that Ryan was bound to collect on Halloween night, I knew we couldn't (shouldn't) eat all those cupcakes. Luckily, I was able to off-load about 2 dozen cupcakes on a neighbor who has 3 growing boys.
Ryan shows off his gingerbread haunted house. This Halloween creation was two days in the making, although the directions on the kit suggest it can be completed in less than an hour. Clearly, they didn't have the help of an enthusiastic 3-year-old. Cleanup alone took me an hour! Ryan really enjoyed assembling and decorating the haunted house. It was really cute to watch - he ate at least one piece of candy for every piece he put on the house and he was covered in orange and black icing! His finished product looks remarkably similar to the one shown on the box, especially given that most of the gingerbread pieces had to be "glued" back together.Pumpkin Picking
Most of the weekends in October have been a washout. Since this past Sunday was the first nice day in weeks and the last weekend day before Halloween, we went to Baugher's to go pumpkin picking with hundreds of other families. Parking was a nightmare, the lines for the hayride were ridiculously long, the field was muddy, and the pumpkin crop was not very good this year and what was left was very picked over. However, the boys' spirits remained high and they were able to find 4 perfect pumpkins that met their criteria (round, orange, no major flat spots, and still attached to the vine). Gavin fell asleep halfway through the search for the perfect pumpkins and Ryan eventually got tired and begged Daddy to carry him the rest of the way. So, just picture it: Mike with Ryan on his shoulders carrying two pumpkins and me with Gavin strapped to my chest and carrying two pumpkins. As we were checking out, we learned that together our 4 pumpkins weighed more than 50 pounds! Who needs P90X!? This was also the first time Gavin was forward-facing in his Baby Bjorn infant carrier. He seemed to prefer watching all the excitement going on around him rather than staring at my shirt!
Here are a few pictures from our pumpkin-picking adventure with our little "punkins:"
Pumpkin Carving
Since Mike had the day off, we carved our pumpkins on Friday afternoon. Ryan's job was to keep Guinness from eating the pumpkin seeds, help scoop out the "pumpkin guts," look through the pumpkin stencils in the carving kit, and choose the design for each pumpkin. He asked us to carve a bat on one and a ghost on another. He wanted to carve a happy jack-o-lantern face on a third, but we ran out of time and interest. The smallest pumpkin was reserved for the "Build-A-Skeleton" pumpkin kit. As luck would have it, the bat design was missing so Daddy had to draw it by hand. Daddy worked hard creating and carving a bat. As he was working on it, Ryan would periodically lean over his shoulder to inspect it. Each time, Ryan would scold, "me no think that looks good, Daddy. Me no think it looks like a bat." Poor Daddy. Judge for yourself from the photo below, but I think he did a good job. Fortunately, once Ryan saw it lit on Halloween night, he changed his mind and decided Daddy's bat pumpkin was his favorite. Gavin wasn't sure what was going on, but he was entertained watching all of us and provided moral support!
What a fantastic holiday! Cupcakes, Gingerbread house and pumpkin carving. Almost perfect, but what is missing? MORE MILKY WAYS, right Ryan?
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