Craft pumpkins. Carving pumpkins. Sugar pumpkins. Pumpkin pies and pumpkin seeds… this has been the pumpkiniest October ever!

I’m glad the kids agree that you’re never too old to carve a jack-o-lantern, and that tradition continued for another year.

Sam and Lucy went for traditional jack-o-lanterns. Maggie picked a ghost template, and Clark and collaborated on the “Boo” ghost. He gutted it, and I carved. Teamwork!

Of course there’s nothing like gutting a big slimy pumpkin, but I also enjoy carving foam craft pumpkins. Every few years we add one or two to the collection, and they are by far my favorite Halloween decorations. This year I invested in remote controlled LED candles that allow us to light up the kitchen with a quick click.

Next up: no-waste pumpkin food! We scooped out the seeds for roasting, and fed the stringy scraps to the chickens. The sugar pumpkins were roasted and pureed for pies, which have already been devoured.

Halloween nostalgia runs deep now that the kids are teenagers. My days of creating costumes and planning parties are in the past, as are the frigid nights spent chaperoning trick-or-treaters.

But last weekend, for a brief blip, I got to spend some dedicated Halloween time with my favorite pumpkins. I’m so grateful they carved out the time. 🎃