Our Pumpkin Past

So yes, the last two weeks did happen around here, and they were rather festive at that.  Pumpkins are ancient history by now, but I need to recap our gourd festivities for the sake of pumpkin posterity.

First off, HELLO cute Strawberry.  I could eat you in two bites, you are so adorable.  Although your Mother hates Halloween, she looked for any and every opportunity to dress you in this outfit and parade you through town.  You are indeed a fourth child.

Opportunity Number One....the fall preschool party.  I volunteered to coordinate, and my co-host was a positively adorable and extraordinarily energetic little mother named Ashley.  I'm guessing she is twenty years my junior.  This isn't my first preschool rodeo, so I kept things on the sweet and simple. I packed up a bean bag toss game, bought some frosting, and planned a really lame craft.  Then I showed up and watched Ashley go......outstanding decorations, home baked cookies, sprinkles of every sort and sunder, balloons, crepe paper......a pumpkin paradise.  She even decorated all the juices to look like jack-o-lanterns.

Too bad she got stuck with the old lady mother as her party co-host.  What can I say?  I did provide the canned frosting.

Ready for the littles to show up from music class.  They were SO EXCITED when they came into the room and saw all this waiting for them.  Yeah for Ashley!  :-)

Here's the threes.  Isn't her teacher adorable?  She is the quintessential preschool teacher and we sing her high praises in this household.

I brought along a pin-the-nose-on-the-pumpkin game, never stopping to consider that the thought of wearing a blindfold would completely freak out the three year old set.  (Ashley would have thought that through.)  Lucky for me, they thought the game was peachy.  And you know what?  When you just walk right up to the pumpkin with your eyes wide open and stick the nose where it belongs, this is a very time efficient game. 

Paper plate pumpkin craft.  It was a fun day, and I loved being there with the kiddos.

IN OTHER PUMPKIN PARTY NEWS...

Marci's sister just remodeled her kitchen, and she invited us over to see (drool over) the new digs, throw down some vittles, and carve up some fun.  This is our third year to carve together, and it is an annual tradition that holds great appeal.  Could you just die for this kitchen?  I want so badly to go there and bake cookies for her children in that Wolf oven.  I'd  need to bake approximately a hundred dozen to fill that island, which is roughly the size of RHODE island.  Gaw.

Sheri's husband kindly dealt with pumpkin guts all afternoon, so we conveniently arrived to a patio table lined with spit shined pumpkins and an outlay of carving paraphernalia.  It's the only way to go, really.  Remarkably, the patient gent appeared to have his sense of humor fully in tact by the time we all arrived, which is way more than I could have said for myself if I'd have faced that big job.

I really hate the pumpkin guts, and although I dream longingly of giving my youngsters the childhood experience of toasted pumpkin seeds, I can't get past the smell of pumpkin strings enough to ever make it happen.  It's the worst smell of October.

If I had a Wolf stove, mind you, I'd roast and season seeds for days.  :-)  Surely I would.

Uncle Joel gives Christopher some expert advice, and the two of them settle on carving a Christmas tree.  It's a bold choice for late October.

Christopher is known as "Boyfriend" 'round these parts.  This is the only picture I got of the dynamic duo all night.  How can two such adorable kids take such a horrible photo??  Ha!  Clearly, the eyes have it in this match.  Any bigger or bluer?  I don't see how.

There was some serious business going on out on the patio.  

Max's masterpiece.

Emmie got an "E" with polka-dots.  She claimed emphatically that the polka dots were too big.  I did the best I could with my plastic scalpel and saw, but the look was not demure enough for her.

The grand display.  Notice how Uncle Joel's pumpkin is waving to us from the far right.

Hi, Uncle Joel's pumpkin!!

We all agreed that Emily's rendition of Tinkerbell was the winner of the night.  A glowing gourd.  A fright night fairy.  A pumpkin princess.  A well deserved first place effort.

The girlies...

...and the guysies.....contemplating art.  (Look at that ceiling.  Gorg-eous!)

Believe it or not...THE FUN DID GO ON.

Surely you question just how much I can carry on about pumpkins in one post.

Plenty.

Onward.

My Old Buzzard has a new job, and his new corporate environment in downright nifty.  They pull lots of stunts to make the workers feel appreciated...like Fajita Fridays and free snowcones when we break heatwave records.  They pulled out all the stops for Halloween.  Each department decorated with a theme, to be judged by HR.  Prizes were at stake.

Believe it or not, this had nothing to do with entertaining children.

It had everything to do with entertaining the Dads, who relished an excuse to go hog wild.

Some of the decorations were completely over the top!!

At 4:30 families were invited to come trick or treat throughout the offices.  Each employee set out a bucket of goods. We really contemplated whether to expose Emma to the decorations, but once she got the hang of the candy buckets, she didn't even seem to notice any of the other decorations.

She was on a divine chocolate mission, her only goal being to spy the next trick or treat sign.

She made me so proud.  I trained her how to dig for the Reece's.  She's a pro.

By far the cutest department was the one outfitted from Wizard of Oz.  So clever!  (And not scary.)

Check out the witch's shoes sticking out from under the cubicle.  Ha!

The secretary tried really hard to get in the spirit, but her ruby slippers made her dogs bark.

This gal went all out.  She provided a complete buffet, complete with Finger Fries, Hand Burgers, and Eye Scream Sundaes.

This guy clearly put in a little too much overtime.

This was Emmie's favorite spot...

....because she loved the trail of babies they left down the hallway!

We marched her right past these gals, who were incredibly sweet but a little intimidating for small strawberries. 

Yes, this was accounts receivable!

We stopped in Daddy's office at the end of the fun and played on the white board.

I'm getting lax in my old age.  My boys could hardly believe that I took Emmie trick or treating.  Oh well.  There are surely worse things in life than panhandling for free tootsie rolls with an adorable strawberry.

And that's a wrap on the pumpkin parties.