What are you doing for Halloween?

[Mrs Mitchell]

Who has carved an awesome lantern? Who has made the best candy treats ever? Who has fabulous decorations at home?

I LOVE halloween! Share any and all seasonal pics, please.

I'll go first - cake for Amelia's party. I discovered while decorating this that arachnophobia is still very much an issue for me - I had to put aluminium foil over it in the fridge, it was looking at me (and I swear it moved).

[clgwli]

Oh my goodness that is so cute!  I love it and I usually hate spiders!!!

We didn't carve pumpkins this year, but DS wanted to draw on them instead.  We went with his preschool to a localish farm (about 20 miles out of the city) and picked our own pumpkins.  That was also when one of his female classmates also gave him a flower - so he has learned that flowers mean that you like someone LOL.  Anyway I think for 3.. nearly 4 he did a good job on his.

I am not making treats this year.  My husband volunteered me for a non-bake volunteer at the halloween party on Thursday.  At home when we pass out candy we have a tradition of making it store candies in both chocolate and non-chocolate varieties but in HUGE quantities.  The person who comes at 8pm when we shut our lights off gets whatever is left too.  So that is something I get joy in.  

I hope some day to decorate our house in such a way that it will be fun and maybe a hint of scare, but I want to wait until our son is old enough for that.  Hopefully then I can pass out popcorn balls too.  That was always a favorite of mine as a kid.

I love Halloween really!  So much fun.  And on the 30th we'll be on our neighbor's lawn to watch "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown"  It's a tradition in our neighborhood to do it

[annie1]

Adorable, Jen! 

I bought the little man a $5 mummy tshirt from Old Navy.  That's about the extent of the halloween festivities here.  That makes me sound boring, doesn't it?

[Mrs Mitchell]

Annie, that's roughly the level of effort we put in here too - it's not such a big deal in Scotland. Well, we do a species of trick or treat (called guising) but its fairly low key. This year though, there's a kid's party in the village. I had the option of helping out (around 30 children, all in the one room) or baking something...

I baked, obviously. 

clgwli, is that a movie you'll be watching? Sounds fun!

[DiamondsAreForever]

The volume of children has been unpredictable in the past.  I love seeing the little ones in their costumes.  We've made up little baggies with a variety of things:  Fun size Reese's PB Cups, Hershey bars, Kit Kat bars, Tootsie rolls Twix and then there's the tart stuff such as Nerds, Sweet Tarts, Bottle Caps and the like.  DF and I would alternate answering the door.  The last time, a little girl actually came back up to my door and said that her little sister was allergic to peanuts and asked if I had anything else I could give her.  Thoughtful sister, however, she didn't return the first mixed bag I gave her :-).  I make up a bag minus chocolates.

For the past three years, we've been away on vacation to Charlotte, NC during Halloween.  No trick or treaters in the hotel.  We've had to change our plans this year due to the sick kitty (we would be leaving at 2:30 AM Thursday).  We're only going to be in Charlotte for the day this Saturday, and then we'll be off to Myrtle Beach, SC for four days.  No trick or treaters at the condo.

You're quite the baker, Jen.

[firegypsy]

That cake is awesome!

I'll be taking kiddos out to collect treats for the great pumpkin.  Due to genetic autoimmune disease they can't eat pretty much anything they get.  Long ago I started the tradition of the great pumpkin.  They go trick or treating and then leave their candy out for the GREAT PUMPKIN who stealthily makes his way in under cover of night and swaps their candy with non edibles.  The dastardly fellow leaves in his wake a trail of pumpkin seeds and pumpkin cookies that they CAN eat.  It's hilarious to me that they think they have it so much better than all their friends! 

We'll also have some charlie brown action.  They've gotten their pumpkins so we need to carve them.  And their school is having a "trunk or treat" on Friday-a costumed dance where they get to go from car to car in the parking lot trick or treating.  The great pumpkin has two rounds to contend with this year.  lol.

That's pretty much it.  Christmas is my holiday so I'm already gearing up for that.  I'm sad to say I haven't done much in the way of decorating for Halloween.    I'm a slacker.  In fact, I just got my kids costumes YESTERDAY.   

[Trinkette]

Jen, your cake is Spook-taculous! Seriously, your cakes and confections are always TO DIE FOR.

At 13, my son may not be trick-or-treating much after this year. As it is, he has no costume yet, although he plans to go out with some family friends (I am expecting a last-minute costume panic...). We live in a very rural area, so we won't get trick-or-treaters here at the house (just DH's grandchildren).

When we lived on our horse farm in New England, we used to celebrate son's Birthday (which is July, when every one was traveling or doing their own family things and it was difficult to schedule a kid's party). We'd put-off his birthday celebration until October and we'd have a Halloween party, with an outdoor "room" under the trees with hay-bale tables and benches, lots of pumpkins scattered around, a ginormous scavenger hunt through the trails and barns (all decorated for the occasion with spooky beings and animals in the trees and trailside), a horse stall completely filled with a string spider web (each child took the end of a string and followed/untangled it to the end to find their gift), pumpkin carving... all that "classic" spooky stuff for little kids, followed-up with some pony rides. It always seemed to take forever to set-up, and the kids went through it all in no time... I miss those days!

[Trinkette]

I LOVE the Great Pumpkin idea to collect the no-no treats!

[lovecolor]

My kids are "all grown"...so the task of keeping Halloween alive around here is a matter of me setting out a few pumpkins and a couple of scarecrows near our mailbox and stairs so I can draw the few little kiddies that live around my home.   What usually happens though, is that I buy way too many treats and wind up eating them myself.        

[Trinkette]

 

[clgwli]

Oh I love the great pumpkin idea!!!!  It was thought that I was allergic to chocolate as a kid so I had some not options for things like Halloween.  I just traded out when I couldn't have it and it was okay at least.

Because of that I do a huge amount of chocolate/nuts options and then "sugar only" so those with allergies have something. 

Jen "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" is a very cute movie.  I don't know if the Peanuts gang is popular over there or not, but you should check it out if you haven't seen it.  A great movie for this time of year.

My son is excited for the party at his school tomorrow.  I can't wait to see all the little ones dressed up

I love hearing all that people do for halloween though.  Hopefully when the rain stops I can take pictures of the pumpkins we did.

[PtyMom]

I love that cake!

You just gave me a cool idea for cupcakes :-)

My Gaby is two and a half right now and really looking forward to dressing up as a butterfly for the condo party we´re having.

This year I bought her a pumpkin treat bag and for a few days now I´ve been placing one candy treat in her little bag for her to find when she wakes up from her nap. Kind of like the 7 days of Halloween. I wish I had decorated the house a little... Def next year when she´s a little older.

I love Halloween! :-)

[dovesgate]

I love Halloween but this year we have been slacking. We usually do lots of spiderwebs and bones in our driveway and we put a spooky cd on underneath a window facing our driveway for the trick or treators.

This year our girls want to go to a Halloween themed do at the roller rink in the next town over. We still don't have our pumpkins carved and I still have yet to figure out my costume. Every other year I dress up as a vampire so it's a vampire year again and I need to find my fangs. Thankfully the girls have had theirs since last month so no last minute scrambles for them. Last year my youngest was forced into a southern belle costume she hated because that was all the local store had.

Oh and we have started learning the Thriller dance because one of these years one of my girls wants to dress as Michael Jackson with me as a zombie.

[ah2bqat]

Killer cake, Jen!  Hope that baby isn't a Black Widow.

I'm trying to  build an Ariel costume for my 17 yr old.  So far, only the purple shell pasties are done.  


I do now have a workable pattern to build the rest.  I've made it from wrapping paper to old sheet, and am about ready to break out the good fabric.  Thankfully, the ex-box was willing to lend me her sewing machine since mine never made it out of TX. Grrrrrr!  

Here's a ghostly version of Cinderella's castle from a few years back.


Between having a driveway over a quarter mile long, having nothing but teenagers, and getting this new business venture off the ground, pumpkins are a low priority.  

[Mrs Mitchell]

Thanks all for the nice words about that grossssss looking cake.     Gives me the heebie jeebies. Also (and hopefully unconnected) I appear to have a spider bite on my arm. Not even funny.

clgwli, your parents showed a streak of clear genius there - I think I'll tell Amelia she's allergic to chocolate, ice cream and cake! Love it!

[clgwli]

clgwli, your parents showed a streak of clear genius there - I think I'll tell Amelia she's allergic to chocolate, ice cream and cake! Love it!

Sadly for me it was true.  I didn't eat chocolate for years after breaking out in hives as a child after eating some serious chocolate.  So I was restricted while my siblings got the real deal.  There was a "Zero" candy bar that was white chocolate and stuff.  I ate that a lot instead... now I hate white chocolate

The stroke of genius was me using that as my excuse for not giving it to my son   He's had teeny amounts but really it's totally avoided.  Pity too because I love chocolate chip cookies and brownies but I won't make those until he's about 8 maybe.  My hives started when I was maybe 4 or 5 so we do want to avoid for a while.

I have found some fantastic peanut butter cookie recipes to make up for it though.

Ah2 that costume top looks wonderful!!!!

I'll try to get photos of my son in his outfit.  I tried today at school for his party but the reflector tape made the camera act weird with the flash and stuff.  It's raining still so I might wait until the sun comes out this weekend to take some more.

[Mrs Mitchell]

OMG, I love that the siblings got to eat the candy bars anyway. Not an equal opportunities household...

[clgwli]

Oh heck no, not at this house.  For Easter they would get yummy local chocolate.  I got that white chocolate stuff... yuck.  They were very fair about some things, but not foods like that.  I eventually started eating chocolate again - the first year I made myself sick even.  I actually think it was the right thing to do in the house really.  Not fair to make them suffer due to my allergy.

Still I love having that excuse for no chocolate here

[firegypsy]

that's why in some weird way I'm kinda glad in a twisted way that my kids all ended up with the same issue.  It allows it to be a black and white issue which also prevents "accidents."  That must have been hard on you!

[clgwli]

I don't think there was a worry about "accidents" in my house.  If I ingested a little bit of chocolate I would probably be fine.  It wasn't so severe that it was a worry that way.  I just couldn't have chocolate cake, a chocolate candy bar or chocolate ice cream.  Unlike some allergies it wasn't a life threatening one... just one we had to wait to grow out of.  I also didn't have it right away, so for years as a kid I ate chocolate and then broke out in hives one day.

In reality I think it wouldn't be fair to my siblings if they weren't allowed it just because of me.  I never was upset about them eating and me not... I was only upset that I couldn't eat it when I wanted to.

[clgwli]

Nothing fancy but here were our pumpkins this year.  Our son wanted to draw them on so we did...



my husband's


mine


our son's

[Mrs Mitchell]

Awwwww!

I never too a photo of Amelia's, but I think we carved it a little bit too early. It was a giant ball of mould by Monday night. 

[clgwli]

We've done that where we carved a bit too early and had them all moldy.  Not a pretty sight to see.  Actually ours are being picked apart by animals so we might leave them out there a while.  They are looking a bit nasty though.

I am glad that our son wanted to draw on them instead of carve because I am sure if we did it when he wanted to do it, we would have had yucky looking pumpkins for Monday

He did get the joy of carving pumpkins in a way at school so I don't feel bad that we didn't do the messy stuff at home too!

[Mrs Mitchell]

You pampered folks in America don't know how lucky you are  - pumpkins are so easy to carve, what we had as kids was not so easy. Turnips! Yes, we carved turnips into lanterns, and all we were allowed to use was a teaspoon. We did them at school, too. It wasn't even optional.

We had to get up at 5am, walk through the snow and rain to the turnip mines, do a full shift there and then go to school to carve a rock hard vegetable into a smiley face using only cutlery.

See, we know what hardship is here....  

I'm not even kidding:
http://www.mysteriou...turnip-lanterns.html

well, maybe not the bit about the turnip mines. That could have been an exaggeration, perhaps...

[clgwli]

.... and I had to walk up hill both ways in -30 degrees F (almost -35C) and with a foot of snow in school.

(actually that happened but it wasn't that bad really)

I have never seen turnips done before, but here I haven't seen ones that huge!  They look cool and remind me of the little squash that people do.  I dislike the innards of a pumpkin and I absolutely stink at carving, so I am curious what was so hard with the turnips?  Was it the size of them?

I never did pumpkins in school myself, but preschools here like to use the whole pumpkin carving as a lesson of sorts and do counting things with the seeds.

Personally I am glad I don't have to scoop out the pumpkins here.  If we get to that, I have a feeling it will be my husband's job