A Very Tim Burton-ey Halloween

Just like "A Very Brady Christmas." But you'll be able to recognize all of the main players. (That's Cindy???? Whaaaaa???)

So. Word on the street was that the Scoresby Farms tent had really cheap, good pumpkins. I went to check it out, and they truly had wonderful prices. It ended up being like $1 per pumpkin. And they were decently-sized. And they ended up being wonderful for carving. None of that surprise-spaghetti-innards nonsense. We've gone to Wal-Mart in the past, and their pumpkins are horrible for carving. I've become a die-hard Scoresby Farms Girl forever.

There were these giant pumpkins there that were like $7. You know, the kinds that are like the size of a person. Dylan wanted one soooo badly. I told him that Dad would get mad if I spent too much on pumpkins. When I told Ben about it later, he giggled and said, "You know what? I totally would have gotten it."

You know how we had this discussion ("we" meaning you two readers and me) about theories that turn into laws? A law I have discovered at my house is this - if Kar overspends, she gets into trouble (a.k.a. Ben says all these passive-aggressive things and makes her feel really guilty about spending too much money. And "too much money" is, like, two dollars. Seriously.). If Ben overspends, it's okay. I shall heretofore call it The Law of Double Standards. I have decided that, since this law rules our household, Ben is in charge of getting groceries. He always goes over budget, getting everything that we need (When I go, it's like, "Hmmm. Should we buy milk or should we buy a winter coat for Micah? Which do we need more? Um, both... But we only have money for one..."), making me happy, a. because he doesn't get mad at me, and b. because we have the things that we need.

Wow. Tangent of the century.

So anyways. Carving pumpkins. Such a pain in the butt. But also so much fun. To me, carving pumpkins is like a fun little art project. It's just the gutting of the pumpkins that I really hate. My dear husband gutted them for me this year, which was awesome. See? He ain't so bad. :)

Ben started carving his pumpkins while watching a dumb show online:

But I told him that me and the kids would like to spend more time with him, and wouldn't he like to spend more time with us by carving in the dining room with us?? See, two can play at the passive-aggressive, guilt-trip game.

That plant behind him makes him look like he's wearing futuristic shoulder pads or something.

And those ear buds he's wearing are so crappy. They're falling apart, and one of them doesn't have sound coming through. I know this because I steal them to jog at MY NEW GYM!!! (Post coming on that very soon.) I think I might get him/me some new ear buds for Christmas stocking stuffers. Or make him go buy them, so that I don't get into trouble. :)

So Ben very gamely came to the dining room to carve with the rest of us:

When Tim was here, he bought us one large pumpkin and four smaller, pie pumpkins. Ben's concept was to have this murderous pumpkin weilding a knife, and the smaller pumpkins fleeing in fear.

Here's the end result:

Ben really is so macabre. He loves zombie movies and scary movies and all kinds of stuff.

What we've done in the past with the kids is to have them draw what they want their pumpkin to look like, and then I carve their drawings. Dylan's concept this year was a worm coming out of a pumpkin's mouth to eat a poor little moth.

The drawing:

(I love how he sticks out his tongue when he's concentrating. I think that's so cute.)

And the finished product:

In the past, I haven't let Dylan touch the sawing tools, but this year, he convinced me to trust him. And he did such an amazing job! He used those pattern thingeys and carved two pumpkins all by himself:

(There's that cute little tongue thing again!)

Finished products:

So impressive.

Sadie's pumpkin, ohhhhhhh. Lots of work. Here is her drawing:

It took me roughly fifty hours to carve that sucker:

She waited patiently:

And the finished product:

Cool, huh? That's why I called this a Very Tim Burton-ey Halloween. It looks like something out of one of his movies.

All of the kids' creations together:

Micah's concept was to steal trick-or-treating candy out of the bowl:

That is ALWAYS his plan - the aquiring and eating of candy. He keeps raiding our advent calendar and stealing all of the candy out of it. Naughty kid.