this year's pumpkins

I've been pretty much traveling non-stop all October so we barely were able to squeeze in the pumpkin carving:

This year's pumpkins were not as elaborate as years past, but they did feature a duck drawn by Rain Dragon herself as well as a requested pig and chick (I carved the chick):

And they still brought some nice holiday spirit to the house:

Happy Halloween, all!

this year's pumpkins

I had hoped to revive our pumpkin carving party tradition this year, but fate was against us. I had gotten rid of our old dining table and ordered a new one but  the shipping company somehow lost it. We have been using this red bench as our table for the last five weeks:

I finally just canceled that table and ordered another from somewhere else. Crossing my fingers the new one makes it!

A pumpkin party without a table seemed rather inconvenient, so we carved solo again this year. And again, we themed them to her current obsession. Right now,  she is in love with Curious George. She started with the books but now prefers the TV show. I know, sacrilege!!

But she likes better that "the man catches him" (and George doesn't break his leg) in the TV episode and she is never satisfied with my answers when she asks, "Why did he open the ether bottle? Why did they have to put George in the cold shower to wake him up?" when I read the book(!). And, I've kind of accepted it because the TV show is a bit more contemporary with characters of different races and women working. In fact, Rain Dragon is so interested in the female firefighter that it was one of the characters she chose for the pumpkins:

Hundley (or Pretzel, she always makes me change the name when I read that book), Lady Fireman (that's Rain Dragon's name for her) and, of course, George

In the years past, I mainly used a plain kitchen knife. But this year we bought some new carving tools and what a difference! So much easier!

And they come out so much better too! I think these are our best pumpkins, yet:

I know Rain Dragon thinks so!

       

our happy halloween!

Well, I think Halloween is more fun when you have a child. It's definitely more hectic!

This year, the holiday stress came from trying to pin down Rain Dragon's costume.  As I mentioned before, she has an affinity for peripheral characters which made it a little difficult. Originally, she wanted to be Dr. James Lewis (the doctor in Lyle and the Birthday Party) and then she wanted to be Dr. Cohn from Madeline, and then the "fat fireman" in Curious George.

But, finally she decided. She would be Jack-be-Nimble. We first read the rhyme together in Richard Scarry's Mother Goose:

And she loved it so much that I searched online for longer versions of the rhyme, finding this:

and this:

She now loves anything by Mother Goose Club 

So we had to combine them all and we got:

 Jack-be-Nimble Bunny!

 But it was all worth it because Halloween was great fun. She was a little tentative about trick-or-treating:

But she quickly got the hang of it:

and didn't want to stop:

 even when she was tired:

Happy Halloween!

this year's pumpkins

We're a little late with our pumpkins this year!  Again, no pumpkin party (what? nobody wants to have toddlers and sharp knives together?) and, to Rain Dragon's protests, I carved mine alone:

But to make up for not letting her do any of it, I carved her current favorite bedtime book:

her favorite is Lyle and the Birthday Party which she calls "Lyle go to hospeetall"

The Sasquatch carved her favorite characters from her favorite TV show, Peppa Pig. Oddly,  her favorite characters are the periphery characters that barely in the show like Mr. Rhino and Mr. Potato. 

Mr. Rhino silhouette and a Mr. Potato outline!

And, of course, we did let her paint her own:

She was pleased with our finished display during the day:

But we all agreed that it looked best at night:

Happy Halloween!

it rained on Halloween...

but it wasn't our Rain Cloud's fault!

this year's pumpkins

So, this was the first year in a while that we did not have a Halloween pumpkin party. We've been so busy that we haven't been able to get it together and connect with friends in our new locale. Also, we just thought a party of sharp knives and small children were not a good mix. So, this year we decided to carve on our own. Hopefully, next year (or maybe the year after) we can start the pumpkin party tradition again.

Rain Dragon was upset that we wouldn't let her carve her own pumpkin so to make it up to her we themed the pumpkins around her favorite friends:

Yes, her toys are wearing diapers. She refuses to do anything unless they do it first. 

I carved her friend "Cute":

bonus points if you recognize where he's from! It's the Sasquatch's fault. 

And the Sasquatch carved Kermit  "Moo-Moo":

originally he was called "Mermit" but then we put a Kermit band-aid on her boo-bo and now he is "Moo-Moo"

Even though she still would've preferred to play with the sharp knives, the finished pumpkins were an acceptable consolation prize:

Happy Halloween!

When Halloween Meets the Moon

From one of the schools I visited in Florida, comes some Halloween fun: Where the Mountain Meets the Moon inspired pumpkins! Here is how Dragon would look if he were made of pumpkins:

Thanks so much, students! Have a happy Halloween!

on my desk monday

Finishing up the last details on Rain Dragon's Halloween costume!

Can you guess what she is going to be?

halloween treat

Happy Halloween!  Rain Dragon's all dressed for trick or treating!

Rain Dragon wasn't sure what her costume was supposed to be, but, luckily,  I had this book to explain it to her:

She's grown so much since the first time we read this book!

Rain Dragon thought the book was delicious than her, but they're both sweet treats to me:

Happy Halloween!

pumpkin party

Last week, before the big storm (we weathered it fine, hope all did as well!) we had our pumpkin party. Yes, it was that time of year again! This year has been even busier than last year, but I felt like we had to squeeze in our traditional pumpkin carving! Since we will be moving, this is our last pumpkin carving in the apartment.

This time we were all tight for time and the carving began later then usual. There was also a lot of baby juggling:

So our pumpkins were not as elaborate as years past. But I think they still looked great!

There was Peep, a cat and Mike Tyson's tattoo:

And a rainbow:

didn't it come out well?

I couldn't finish mine until Rain Dragon went to sleep, which was apropos as it was an homage to her:

Yes, I did a dragon pumpkin!

As usual, it was great fun!

I hope next year we pumpkin carve in our new house with new and old friends.

on my desk monday

Not on my desk, but in my closet is Rain Dragon's Halloween costume. I was going to make her one but I saw this one at Old Navy and it was too perfect  not to pick up...