Happy Halloween!

My Halloween celebration started last Saturday night when we went to at This is the Place Heritage Park for Kristine's birthday. The first scream of the night, of course, came from M in the parking lot before even entering through the gates. :) Somehow this didn't surprise me.

On Monday evening, M and I went to our ward Halloween Blowout. Having it on Monday, in conjuction with the Ward Family Home Evening activity was a nice start to the Halloween week. It definitely got me more in the mood and reminded me that every holiday (birthdays included) should be celebrated for longer than just the one day, so you can really enjoy it!

M went as Monk as a safety patrol officer. If you aren't familiar with the television series Monk (you should be), Adrian Monk is an obsessive-compulsive detective in San Francisco who believes strongly in things such as hand sanitizer and color coordinated jelly beans. True to his character, M carried his wipes around everywhere. Oh and his orange safety cones. Yes, his cones were definitely germ-free as was just about everything in his path that night. Very funny. He stayed in character practically the entire night; it was great. In this picture, Monk was saving a seat for me. How kind. :) The look on his face just makes me laugh!

As part of the Halloween festivities, there was a pie-throwing event all in the name of the Friends of Scouting Fundraiser and the Ward Mission Fund. I was volunteered, thanks to Brian, to be one of the recipients of these whipped cream face plants. :) As you follow the series of pictures you can see me go from being happy, to slightly anxious because I was the last one to get a pie in my face, to face planted with whipped cream, to completely drenched in whipped cream.





I was the last one without pie in my face... but not for long. Oh no, if you could see the look on Sherry's face. (She's the one in the pirate costume.)







How do you do?

Oh Jason, you didn't. He did.

Then on Wednesday night, in keeping with the Halloween spirit, M and I carved pumpkins.

Every time I have ever carved a pumpkin, I have had these grand ideas of how elaborate my design is going to be, but I have always ended up free-handing the design and it looks like every other typical jack-o-lantern. Boring. So this time, I decided that I really wanted it to be more of a work of art.

M chose a witch on a broom which, I think, turned out splendidly. And my first atempt at ever using a stencil resulted in the bat motif on the right. This also was the first time I have ever shaved the pumpkin without actually cutting all the way through, which I have always wanted to try. Although, I learned that you have to shave the pumpkin very very thin to get the glowing effect I was looking for, I like the way it turned out.

Happy Halloween!