Pumpkins and Halloween

I know a lot of people don't agree with me, but I think Halloween is so fun! I love the decorations, carving pumpkins, seeing all the cute kids in their costumes, but mostly I love making a festive dinner!

Nick's, Sara's, Nick's & Shasta's (in order from the lit up pumpkins)

Shasta showing off her pumpkin!

Halloween day was super busy. We took the girls trick-or-treating on Main Street first thing in the morning because I had school at 11:30. At first Shasta wasn't sure how she felt about it, but once she realized she would get candy each time she decided it was pretty fun! She refused to say trick-or-treat and every time I asked her to say thank you she would say no, but for the most part she willingly approached people hand held out her bag for candy. It was also fun to see people's reaction to Shelby's costume although most people called her a boy. I guess that's what I get for dressing her up like one!

Shasta went as Snow White and Shelby went as Dopey

After class I slaved away in the kitchen the rest of the day. Everything we ate was homemade and it was a lot of work. I also signed up to take a meal to a family in the ward that just had a baby and you can bet I took them the same festive meal I prepared for my family! I was so excited about it! One thing I love about doing a festive dinner is it's okay if it doesn't turn out. It just adds to the festivity. There's no pressure in everything turning out perfectly.

On the Menu:

I bought a "blood orange" and then forgot to serve it with dinner so we had it the next day. If you've never seen these before they're pretty fun. They're literally a deep red when you cut them open.

Shrunken Heads and Brains (my Uncle Gregory's Pasta served in carved bell peppers)
Bones (Garlic Bread Sticks)
Witches Fingers (Green Beans)
Blood (Fruit Punch)
And for dessert, Dirt and Worms (Crushed cookies and pudding with a gummy worm)

The Spread. After all that cooking we ate on paper plates to save on dirty dishes!

Shasta was so fun with the trick-or-treaters. I didn't take her out trick-or-treating because we did a trunk-or-treat the night before and Main Street earlier in the day so I didn't think she needed to go out again. Plus Nick was at work until 7:30pm so it would have meant nobody was home to give out candy. At first she was a little skeptical of people knocking on our door so often, but then she started getting excited about it. She would run over to the door and open it before I was over there with the candy so I'm sure the kids were wondering what was up. Then eventually she got brave enough to put candy into the buckets. Her first time though she didn't want to get too close so she ended up dropping the candy on the ground instead of in the bag. Silly girl! We also had the baby gate up across the door so Wedge couldn't run out so maybe that had something to do with it.

Dopey

Snow White

Dragon

After Nick got home and we ate dinner, we put the candy on the doorstep and went upstairs to watch Monsters University. We figured it tied in with the festivities since it's about monsters and all! It was the perfect day and I enjoyed every minute that I got to spend with my family. I love Halloween because it's stress free, festive, and easy to get excited about because nobody has any expectations for it other than little kids dressing up and getting candy.