Halloween Party and Pumpkin Carving

Dear friends of ours have an annual all-family costume party every Halloween. It's so much fun to see what new investments they've made in their decorations. This year they had a life-sized Grim Reaper whose eyes flashed! The costumes are always fun, too. Our host and hostess were Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash. Some of the guests were Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head; a hippie and a mime (peace and quiet); Dolly Parton; and the Big Bad Wolf (whose 3 YO was Little Red Riding Hood).

Pictures of our family before the party:
And at the party, in front of said Grim Reaper (poor M. was soooo scared of it):


G. and I weren't just pirates--we were pirates spreading the gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster!

Since the kids and I had been gone for several days before the party, and Trick-or-Treating was the next day, we realized on Sunday morning that we had better get the pumpkins carved! We got wonderful, bright orange pumpkins from my friend, who had put dead pumpkins into her compost pile, and then neglected to stir the compost. She got FOURTEEN pumpkins from that! And she gave us three beautiful ones.

The kids designed their own pumpkin faces and the older two carved their own pumpkins entirely (G. and I only had to cut off the top and scrape out the guts. M. designed hers and G. carved it.

Strangest thing--C's pumpkin had NO seeds inside! (bummer since we planned to roast them).

M's pumpkin looked fine, but the seeds were moldy! So that meant we only had T's seeds to roast. I used my friend Cee's pumpkin seed recipe, plus added some chili powder to the butter before roasting. They were wonderful!

Cee's Pumpkin Seeds
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Wash the seeds and get all those stringy things off. ;) Boil the seeds for 10 minutes in 1 quart of water and 2 T. of salt for each 2 C. of seeds. Drain. Toss the seeds with 1 T. of butter. Spread evenly on a baking pan. Bake for 30 minutes, stirring often to avoid burning.



Oh, did you want to see the carved pumpkins?