Pumpkin Carving Contest

Well, here are the finalist for our pumpkin carving contest! I thought they all turned out great (mine was a little quirky, but hey, that's just me)

I also have been laughing all morning about the things our "judges" have been saying about our pumpkins. I listed these underneath the contestants so you could laugh about it too!

1.


a. "Jimmy Durante"



b. "I can't even tell what that is!"

c. "#1 is the one with the hat and the nice teeth"



2.


a. "my vote is for that spider-web thingy"
b. "I like the bat, but obviously a stencil was used and that is cheating"




3.


a. "Fish with fire (the last one – I’m not actually sure if that is a fish but I like it!)"
b. "Lol, I don’t get it… what is it?"


4.



a. "Pumpkin face with fire"
b. "The evil bull"

Take a walk with me...

Every morning I take Rupert (also known as the bain of my existence) out for a walk to do you know what. Today I decided to take my camera along and give you a tour of my yard. Join me, won't you?

The other bain of my existance!!! OK, when we first moved here there was a black metal mail box that was rusty. So we bought a new one. Well, Ben put it up last Sunday because the old one wouldn't stay shut anymore. Well, now the new one won't stay shut!!!

This is how cute my neighbor is. She put little pumpkins on all the posts from the fence...

This is what the leave look like around my house, they are all stuffed in my crazy bushes.

This is a giant mushroom growing on the only tree that provides shade in my yard. It is up high enough that it doesn't bother anyone, so I don't bother it.

The bain of my existance :)

This is a bucket of apples I picked up in the back from our trees. There where so many that I got it in my head I needed to clean them up a bit. Ben said that I don't need to, but if there is "applesauce" all over in the back next spring I will send HIM out to scoop it up! :)

Carving Pumpkins!

Ben managed to pick Kobe out the grosses pumpkin. The guts where so slimy and there where so many of them! I can't figure out if it was because it was such a big pumpkin or what! Mine was small and so much easier!




I love this pictures of the HUGE pile of guts with Ben in the back ground


This is the witch I carved, I think it looks better unlit that lit. (On Saturday I left too big of a candle in it burning and it cooked the top of my pumpkin!)

And this is the pumkin Ben carved for Kobe. He is such a good sport, Kobe always chooses the hardest ideas then ben has to figure out how to translate them onto a pumpkin. He has had to make the green gobin from spiderman before and spongebob! I am always surprised when I see how good they look!

Here they are lit, I love Ben's!!!

Part 3 of my DIY Halloween Special!

OK! It is the day before Halloween so I had to get this up before that comes and goes!

Goal: To take little pieces of cake and make them look like ghosts using frosting and a butter glaze!

Here we go:

First I made up a box cake mix in a sheet pan. Then I cut little circles of it out and placed them on a wire rack


Now, it was time to make the butter glaze.
1 stick of unsalted sweetcream butter
2 1/2 C. of SIFTED powdered sugar
5 TBS of Milk

And, yes, I did sift the powdered sugar!

And, this is why I sifted it! I am always surprised when I sift sugar or flour how many lumps, hard lumps there really are!


To make the glaze:
melt the stick of butter and then (while the butter is warm) mix in the powdered sugar and milk.


Then I made some of my frosting I always make and piped it onto the top of the little cakes trying to make them ghost shaped


I decided to try the Martha Method first, I poured the glaze over the little cakes. As you can see it was see thru.


So, I ended up ditching the Martha way and ended up throwing them in the glaze, rollin' them around and takin' them out by hand!

Then I dipped them a second time...

This is the little "ghosts" after their 3rd dip in the glaze

This is just Kobe playin' in the left over glaze.


Then I put all the little ghosts in the freezer to harden up!


I used a black gel tube to make their eyes and mouths. If you are Martha Stewart you would have melted dark chocolate and piped the little eyes and mouths on with that.

They did turn out cute!


Summary:

Pros-They are really cute!

Cons-Taste wise, I wasn't too into butter and sugar, but to each their own.
-I had to dip some of them 3 times to get them to look right, I had to make 3 batches of the butter glaze
-They never hardened. I put them in the freezer and then they did, but when they thawed they were mushy
and I don't like that!

Sunday...

On Sunday we had a big family dinner with my Mom's side of the family. It was SO nice to have them all over, it doesn't happen nearly enough!!!
In the picture of Kobe he is wearing my Grandpa's cowboy boots, I love it!

And then there is the new baby, David, sleeping in his little pumpkin costume, so cute!

Our Halloween Party (Costume Party)

Well, we had our Costume party on saturday and as you can see everyone got very...creative! We had so much fun with all of you, thanks for coming out and playing with us!

I boiled spagetti with red food coloring to make it look icky (I think it worked!) and no, it wasn't for eating, it was just for the kids to stick their hands in!

I got such a kick out of Grandma's costume! She was a crazy lady/hillybilly (that is my interpretation)

Ben and I dressed up as characters from Grease (the pink ladies and t-birds) Ben HATES dressing up but I even got him to let me spray his hair black, I was THRILLED!!! My favorite party of my costume is my dark hair I couldn't cover up with the blonde wig!!! :)

Oh boy! Where these two a TRIP at the party...this is Griffin, Kobe's best friend. They are quite the mischievious two when they get together...for example, they decided it would be a good idea to get the pillows off Ben and I's bed, Kobe's bed and the couches, SPRAY THEM WITH A JUICE BOX and then take a full box of kleenex and spread it around the living room over the juice spots that were on the pillows and the COUCH!!!


This is my favorite picture of Amanda & Caleb

The winner for cutest picture of the night was this one ben took of Caleb the skunk :)

Todd and Ryan (Hans & Frans)

Vicki & Dave (a pig and mouse, odd couple :) )

Mark and Cindy (the cowboy and baseball player)

Dave and Caleb!

I finally decided I needed a Halloween Tree, it looks better in real life, I love it :)

Kobe turning Dave into a Mummy

Griffin turning Todd into a Mummy (it turned out more like a diaper :) )


The kids opening their prizes