Pumpkin Carving Night and Mom's 62nd Birthday Party

Saturday, October 22nd

I put this idea out to my friend on our Facebook group a couple weeks ago.  We haven't gotten to have a pumpkin carving night in three years because of Covid.  I posed the question to see if anyone was interested. A few people responded and a couple people said, we will see when it gets closer but sounds like fun.  Ben and I decided on a date because if we were hosting it had to mesh with our schedule.  I chose the 23rd because it was close enough to Halloween but did not conflict with my trip that was next week.

I got Lindsay and Justin on board, followed by a confirmation through text from Megan letting me know that she and Matt were coming and then I invited Mom and Dad, Ben invited Josh and Heather and I tried getting Erika and Zach to come but they didn't want to leave their house.  Nicole and Del had other plans for that date.

I told everyone we were going to have pizza skulls and to bring whatever else they would like to share.  They all were excited to carve pumpkins and hang out.

The day before I did some cleaning off and on, got some cheap decorations up and made sure I had all of my treats done and the ingredients for my pizza skulls.  It's been three years since I decorated for Halloween, and it actually made the house look fun.   I had to wait to decorate the table until hours before everyone arrived because the kitties would wreck the tablecloth and the decorations.

I got up, ate a quick breakfast and watched some college football while I got the rest of the stuff ready to go.  I had to tell people that I wasn't supplying pumpkins and that they would have to bring their own pumpkins. People were scheduled to be here by 3ish.  I wanted it to be earlier in the day so it would give people a chance of doing something later on that evening if they wanted to once they went home.

I started getting some of the pizza skulls done and was having a really hard time with the dough.  It would stretch but it wouldn't stay stretched and would shrink.  I added some of the ingredients I prepared beforehand (sausage, pepperoni, olives, sauce and cheese), closed it up the best I could and put it in the oven.  They looked like a hot mess when that batch came out.  Mom showed up and helped me make them.  We just added more dough and left some open in the back.  They were not pretty but they tasted like pizza skulls.  Everyone else showed up.  Lindsay and Justin brought Wes.  I thought Megan and Matt would bring Mason and Miles, but they spent the weekend with their grandpa.  Bummer, I made a lot of treats because I thought they were coming.   Oh well. 

After we ate some of the pizza skulls and treats, I got out some giant bowls, all the pumpkin carving kit's I've amassed over the years, some large spoons and a couple of knives. It took me a while to find a face I wanted to carve. So many choices!  Doug went ambitious and Ben took a while to find a carving he wanted to do.  He was usually the last one to pick and the last one to finish his carving.

We had a great time making messes, carving pumpkins and carrying on.  Some picked easy carvings and finished quickly while the rest of us picked more difficult ones that took more time to complete.  I was one of the slow ones too. Once everyone got their pumpkins carved and they were happy with them, we got a picture of them all in the front of the house.  Our cover photo of our group was seasonally appropriate again.

We cleaned up, some people took their pumpkins home, others left them here, I thanked everyone who came and told them we would see them at the next friend gathering, whenever that was.  We will see when everyone has time again.  Anyway, it was a great turn out!  Ben and I cleaned up the rest of the living room, put away tables and chairs and did some dishes.  We relaxed the rest of the evening.

Sunday, October 23rd

We could not celebrate Mom's birthday last Sunday because we were at the Elton John concert so I asked her if the Sunday after would be fine, and she said yes.  I had a heck of a time getting her to tell me what kind of food and dessert she wanted for her birthday meal.  I finally just told her what we were going to have, taco salad and peach pie.  She said that would be fine.

Ben and I put together the living room, brought in tables and chairs, did a little decorating.

I let everyone know about a week ahead of time so they can plan to be at our house around 5.  Mom and Dad brought Grandma and Erika and Zach made it over roughly as the food got done.  I had purchased some corn tortilla bowls and made some homemade ones with our tortilla bowl maker in the oven.  The first batch I put in too long and they burned so I had to make a new batch.  

We all got our taco salads ready and sat down at the table with the chips and salsa, ate and chatted about random things. And of course, poop was added into the conversation like it always does.  Haha.  We finished eating and got the pie ready for dessert.  We had ice cream and a peach pie I made by hand while Mom opened her gifts.  Erika got her a pink sloth sweatshirt, Doug got her a Seahawk pumpkin, I got her one and a crabby sign I had gotten in Westport a few weeks back.  Grandma got her a couple of small things.  We got a group picture and then everyone got ready to head home while Sunday Night Football played in the background. 

Mom thanked us for her party and Ben, and I cleaned up once again after having a bunch of people over.  This time it was easier to clean up since there were no pumpkin pieces or guts on the floor.  We got the tables and chairs put away, I ran the vacuum over the floor a few times and then relaxed after starting the dishwasher.  I'm sad the weekend was over, but we did get a lot done.  I was so looking forward to my vacation next week. 

Next Adventure:  MA-VT-NH-ME Girl's Trip:  Leaving SeaTac to Boston Logan (Day 1)