Skipping Halloween...kinda

When I told my kids that Dan and I would be out of town for Halloween, you would have thought that I told them that we were skipping town on Christmas. We try not make a big deal about Halloween, but the kids do get a kick out of dressing up and getting free candy.  I mean, really, are there any kids who say, "No thanks mom, I don't want any free candy.  But, thanks for the offer, I would rather just stay home." Yeah, didn't think so. But, since Dan's Ironman was the weekend after Halloween, I didn't want to force the friends that were so graciously watching our kids to dress them up and follow them around the neighborhood. Afterall, we wanted to keep them as friends.

We did, however, do our annual carving of the pumpkins. Every year Dan gears up for the carving.  He takes everyone's orders and spends the next 3+ hours cleaning out the pumpkins and carving them. This year 3 out of the 4 kids wanted to carve their own.  Dan didn't complain. Again, are there really any dads who would say, "I know that you want to carve your own pumpkin, but I would rather do it and have you breathe over my shoulder for the next 2 hours asking if your pumpkin is done yet."  Yeah, didn't think so.

They cleaned the pumpkins

And got started on their creations...they get the tongue thing from their dad!

Without any further ado, and before it's Thanksgiving...here are their creations:

Annika's

Taryn's

Landon's

All of them together...Simon requested Mickey Mouse (at the far end)...

Happy Belated Halloween everyone! (Yes, by the time I actually got around to posting about this all the pumpkins above are now in our compost pile).