Our 1st Jack-o-Lantern

It would be an understatement to say that our lives have been a *little* crazy the last two October's (click here to see what we were up to in 2009 and here for 2010). Life feels a lot more manageable these days, so I definitely wanted us to carve a pumpkin this Halloween. My mom was flying back to North Dakota this morning, so we took the opportunity before her flight to carve Zoe & Silas' first jack-o-lantern!

First we had to come up with the vision and draw on the face,

Next we rolled up our sleeves,

And laid down newspaper.

Derek put the kids to work pulling out the seeds.

Daddy got to carving while the kids watched,

And lickety-split, it was time to check out the finished product!

Look, Gwa-wa!!!

We got cozy last night and lit up the pumpkin. Silas loved that part, and this morning asked "punkin on, punkin on".

We're also enjoying a refrigerator decorated with the last two art projects from our Sticky Fingers class.

It definitely feels like Halloween's that I remember in North Dakota as a kid - we got snow last night! We did lose power in the middle of the night. Because I sleep with a fan and am used to the sound of the baby monitor in the background, I woke up as soon as the house went quiet. Derek was at work so I went into high alert mommy mode. As I walked up to the kids' room to check on them (they sleep with a sound machine so I figured they woke up as well), all I heard was Silas say "uh-oh"... Other than that they were completely quiet, and I laid awake for 3 hours until it came back on. Derek got home at 7am and took the baby monitor - both the kids & I slept until 8am!

HAPPY NIGHT BEFORE

HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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