Howl at the moon every chance you get

We didn't plan to have a Hallowe'en party this year but I the Great Pumpkin had other ideas.  One of my older grandsons (age 13) is a very talented artist and wanted to try his hand at carving a pumpkin this year. The first one he did was a small traditional looking Jack o' Lantern. The second one, a larger pumpkin, was to be an ugly warty witch, making use of the lumpy texture of the shell.  Unfortunately, the big pumpkin also had a very thick shell and was extremely difficult to cut. In the end he put the Star Trek logo on it and called it done!
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There is a lot more to pumpkin carving than meets the eye and we explored all the nuances of those details. I was not to be bullied into making a pie of the innards (who does that?) even though my daughter assured me I would NOT find any canned pumpkin filling this year as it is already in short supply. However, I did salt and roast the seeds. Too bad she had left before we sampled them as they are delicious! The stringy, mushy stuff went out into the backyard to feed the birds and ducks that are always looking for a handout. I don't know how long the fresh cut pumpkins will last in this heat wave we are having but they look nice for now.

The picture of the haunted gingerbread house at the top of this post was taken a few years ago. What fun my son and three of his six kids had working on this project. It was an all-out masterpiece and this picture is one of my favorites.

One of the things the kids enjoyed doing this year was making caramel apples. The mother and grandmother of a kid down the street had taken one of my grandsons with them when they went to the annual Brevard Boo at Zoo event. This has become an annual tradition with us, but we hadn't gotten the tickets yet. When they returned from the not-so-scary Boo, with a bag full of candy, they were hungry. Go figure! So we made caramel apples. Our local supermarket had kits this year that contained caramel to be heated in the microwave and 3 kinds of sprinkles to add the finishing touches. It was sticky but delicious!

This is just the warm up for the main event. Next stop: Costumes! And, more candy.