Carving Memories and Pumpkins!

We had a SPOOK-tacular Halloween! I tried really hard not to get carried away this year, but all that did was prove that I cannot help myself!

Every holiday it's the same story: my mind is bombarded with crazy chaos and ideas for decorations, and traditions, and projects .... Never mind the fact that I have been thinking about Christmas the entire month of October. (yeah, whaaaat? That's just crazy talk)

Anyway, the week prior to "All Hallows Eve" Jake had business meetings here there and everywhere. He started in Boise, then went up and made stops in Portland and Seattle. While he was gone,  I had some time on my hands and no one to restrain my festive freak-outs. And so I became a pumpkin carving fool! (instead of just a regular one. haha)

OH the possibilities!!! I found a new pumpkin pattern website called Stoneykins.com and was overwhelmed with the options. Surprisingly, I settled on Rapunzel from "Tangled" -  The pattern was just way too awesome to pass up for some predictable scary face.

And so it began - with the hollowing, and the scraping, and the shaving.... 6 hours later.... TA DA!

It was basically the coolest pumpkin I ever carved, and it gave me an unhealthy dose of motivation to KEEP CARVING! I had more pumpkins at my disposal, so I continued with the "Tangled" theme and came up with three WANTED posters for Flynn Rider:

"They just can't get my nose right!"

Last but not least, there was one small pumpkin left on our porch, and I just could not leave it out. But what could I do on such a small space? A little chameleon named Pascal. 

I swear small pumpkins have more guts than big pumpkins! Also, the shell seemed to be extra thick. And the eyes were rather tricky. Basically, it turned out to be more time consuming than I had planned. I was still working on him when Jake arrived home. Uh, my intention was to have the house cleaned up and to destroy all evidence of my obsessive pumpkin carving week  --- but he found me surrounded by this on our kitchen floor:

"Umm... hello"  was all I had to say for myself. He just rolls his eyes and smirks, but that means he loves when I get carried away. And besides,  he was totally impressed when he saw the whole line up:

In a few days, I am sure we will take them out back and break them to pieces, put a few bullet holes in them, or blow them up - you know, the usual.

The next day, Saturday, I was running around trying to put the finishing touches on our costumes. We had a costume party to go to that night!  Jake had to work all day, poor guy, so we were a little late to the shindig, but I am just excited that we were able to go. I had such a good time just being with my good friends and staying up way too late. We played games, ate junk food and talked the night away.

I wished I had taken pictures of everyone's costumes while we were there - but all I can do is tell you about them. There was a biker/biker chic couple, Red riding hood with baby wolf, batman, a devil, and a zombie.

And here we are as Paul Bunyan and "Babe" the blue ox:

Yes, I gave Jake a list of possible couple costume ideas and he chose this one - so I would have to be an ox! hahaha. But I must say I make one foxy ox!

My favorite part of our outfits would have to be Jake's beard. I worked super hard on it, and after countless attempts, finally came up with this crocheted facial hair. It has two loops on the side that go around his ears and then the rest is just like a little blanket for his face! His axe was also quite cool, as it had a real handle on it and had some weight to it.

The cow-bell around my neck was funny, because I couldn't stop it from jingling all night. And then there is my wig --- I dig the wig! I just had to have it when I saw it online - shaggy and blue and totally ox appropriate. I was lucky it arrived in the mail in time, but it was way worth it and I have decided it was an awesome purchase. In fact, I loved it so much that I wore it to the grocery store the next day! It was the actual day of Halloween after all, and all of our celebrating was over - I just had to wear it one last time.  

 I got a few weird looks from people, and heard all the little kids giggle and point as I passed by. I saw my aunt there and she barely recognized me.

Then there was the funny old guy who came up to me and gave me a compliment on my "costume" --- then he said  "I love Halloween. It's the only time of year when my wrinkly old face is in style." It totally made my day.

While I was at the store I decided I needed to make a "Halloween Theme" dinner. Without much of a budget to work with and no time to think it through, I just came up with eyeball pasta and bone breadsticks:

 

Since it was pretty late when Jake got home (cuz he's a kick butt hard worker like that) we did not go out gallivanting in the darkness. No Tricks and barely any Treats. We had a total of three trick-or-treaters come to our door, but were pretty content to be uninterrupted while we we ate our spooky dinner and watched "The Dark Knight."

I hope you all had a Creep-tastic night. 

   BOO!