Pumpkin guts and cupcakes

Today was the last official day of our Halloween celebrations.  This year we basically celebrated all month, so now that it's over I'm not sure what to do with myself.  Our grand finale was pumpkin carving followed by some Halloween cupcakes. 

Cambrie has been dying to carve our pumpkin from the pumpkin patch and has been coming up with ideas for it for a long time.  She points out what kind of faces she likes and which ones she doesn't.  However, when it came time to actually carve the pumpkin, she was grossed out by the whole thing.  The pumpkin had been sitting on our porch during the afternoon and as a result it was warm inside.  Well, Cambrie would have none of that and thought it was the most disgusting thing ever.  She wouldn't even touch it. 

 Jeremy was able to recruit her for the pattern tracing however, and she did a stellar job at that. 

We didn't actually end up carving one of Cambrie's early requests after all.  Jeremy found a ghost that worked great with our pumpkin and we went with that.  Not bad for a hack saw blade and screwdriver huh?  (For the life of me I could not find our pumpkin carving tools). 

And here is our ghost in all of its ghoulish glory.  He must not have been very frightening though, because instead of scaring away the trick-or-treaters, he kept welcoming them with open arms.  Well, we were out of candy so he was banished to the back porch for the rest of the night.

 Happy Halloween!

Trick-or-treat!

Ah, the best part of Halloween, trick-or-treating.  It all began at the church for the ward trunk-or-treat.   First of all, I have to say that it was a serious shock seeing 300 people and 45 different soups at a ward activity.   We are not used to that kind of turn-out and it was a little overwhelming but still a lot of fun.   Cambrie is making a couple little friends in the ward which has been really nice.  Payton (Snow White) took us to the zoo a couple of weeks ago and they get along well. 

After a delicious soup dinner, we had a costume parade then everyone headed outside to play some games and to go trunk-or-treating.  If there were too many kids at one car, Cambrie would wait patiently or just head to the next car.  She quickly lost Payton who knew exactly where to get the candy and would stop at nothing to be up front.  But we didn't mind, candy is candy.

Some ward members did a great job decorating their trunks with jack o' lanterns, spider webs, glowing lights, or the scary cave of glowing eyes (Cambrie didn't want any candy from that car).   We'll have to do that next year.

When we got home, Cambrie was ecstatic with her haul.  Can you tell?  

McKenzie was just as thrilled.  She grabbed any candy within reach and would suck on it until the wrapper came off enough for her to get some flavor. 

Some of the families in our neighborhood opted to go trick-or-treating tonight instead of Halloween night which is on Sunday.  The houses were kind of spread out so Cambrie rode her tricycle all over the neighborhood.  It was a beautiful evening that was just the right temperature for being outside.  Cambrie never had to wear her coat and never complained about being cold at all.  In fact, she was giddy the entire time.  We joked about goblins chasing us, and zombie hands poking out from the grass (so we stayed on the sidewalk).  We repeated Halloween poems we knew, and looked for ghosts and witches flying in the sky.  It was so much fun. 

Cambrie loved ringing the doorbells at each house, but just to make sure they heard her she also knocked on the door multiple times. 

By the time we got home her cauldron was full to the brim.  Her first choice of sweets was a blue ring pop and she started eating it while we were telling Jeremy about our adventures. 

She was a sweet sister and shared her loot with McKenzie who had stayed home while we were out.  McKenzie followed her around the rest of the night looking for that ring pop.

Unfortunately when it came time to take some pictures of the girls in their costumes, their lips and teeth were completely blue.  I guess I should just be happy that it's the only piece of candy either girl had tonight right? 

Happy Halloween from my little Tinkerbell and Iridessa!

Goodies galore

Next on my Halloween goody list:  Bones!  I didn't know these would be such a hit or else I would have made more.  They were delicious! 

Pumpkin rice krispies.  Surprisingly the candy corns blend really well with the rice krispie treats.  Cambrie thought the faces on them were pretty goofy. 

Pumpkin pancakes...this time flavored with pumpkin instead of mint.  Much better :) 

And banana ghosts.  These spooky fellows didn't stay together very well when they were eaten, but we didn't mind. 

Johnson family pics

There was a rare week this summer where all of my family happened to be home from their various adventures.  So my parents seized the day and we went to get some family pictures taken.  Here are some of my favorites.

Lil' Builder

Every couple of weeks, Lowe's has a building workshop for kids.  It's completely free and they get to make some really fun things.  This last weekend they made flapping bats.  Jeremy took Cambrie and he said that she had an absolute blast.  They gave each kid safety goggles, a work apron, the building kit, and some darling kid-sized hammers and tools to use. 

Cambrie was so proud of her bat.  She hammered in every nail and the bat looks great. Each week they go they receive a patch that can be sewn onto their aprons to show what they've accomplished.   I believe we'll be going back next time to add to her collection. 

After a quick coat of paint, Cambrie applied its face (which glows in the dark so it makes a great bedtime toy).  She loves this thing! 

Look familiar?

There must be something really cool about watching books fall.  When Cambrie was this age she lived at the bookshelf pulling off books.  Unfortunately it was right in the middle of the path to the kitchen and I had to clean it up five times a day.  Well, McKenzie has recently found the bookshelf utopia.  She'll crawl behind the couch and just start laughing as she pulls every book off the shelf.  I'm surprised she hasn't pinned herself in there yet.  Luckily her destruction is out of sight so I only clean it up once or twice a day.  But look how happy this little munchkin is.

Rock Creek Farm

It is official autumn here in Colorado.  Everywhere I turn there are red, orange or yellow leaves.  It is cool enough for sweaters, but still warm enough to enjoy the park.  And what's fall without a quick trip to the pumpkin patch?  So before Halloween is officially over, and before the predicted rains this weekend made a muddy mess out of the pumpkin fields, we headed to Rock Creek Farm to get our own, "U-pick-em" pumpkins.  

You drive your car right out into the pumpkin fields, park on the small dirt roads, and roam the fields until you find that one special pumpkin that's calling your name.  After the fields in Philadelphia, I was surprised by how brown and dry these fields were.  But there were pumpkins, and that makes it fun.  Cambrie was so excited to see all of the pumpkins that she just ran through the fields laughing her goofy laugh. 

She was still laughing when I took this sister picture.  

Whenever I set McKenzie down to get her pumpkin pose she just wanted to dig in the dirt.  The only remedy to that was to stand her up next to some other stacked pumpkins.  I'm glad I got a smiling picture before they toppled over. 

When you pull into the field, they recommend you grab a pumpkin saw to help cut your pumpkin off the vine.  Jeremy was excited to use his but was disappointed when we got out there and found that most of the pumpkins were loose.  So to make himself feel better he practiced his knife throwing into rotting pumpkins.  Unfortunately, one pumpkin was soft enough that the saw went right through the skin and Jeremy had to dig it out.  It was pretty gross.

I don't know how many pumpkins Cambrie wanted to take home, but she decided it had to be one that she could carry by herself-this one was too heavy. 

And I'm shocked by how well this family photo turned out.  It was just propped on a pumpkin. 

After we found the pumpkin we wanted to adopt, we drove to the play area near the exit.  There were inflatable jump castles and an inflatable slide to play on.  McKenzie couldn't join her sister inside, but was laughing at her having fun anyway. 

There was also a kid-sized hay bale maze that wasn't terribly difficult, but Cambrie couldn't find her way out.  She just ran around and was excited to be there.  I can't blame her for that.

She finally opted for running along the top of the bales, and trying her best not to let me catch her with my camera. 

And lastly we have our little pumpkin and scarecrow children smiling and anxiously awaiting the time they can paint and carve their pumpkins.