Carving pumpkins, sibling style

While my brother was visiting last month, we took the opportunity to carve a few jack-o-lanterns. Can you believe that Trevor has never carved a pumpkin before?? Oh, that just will not do!

If you're with the Mehaffeys in the month of October,  you're going to adhere to our strict Halloween traditions. No fall is complete without carving a pumpkin! (Or the annual eat-the-pumpkin-goop-from-the-super-scooper-picture.)

For it being Tevo's first stab at carving (ha, see what I did there?), I have to say, I do believe he did a fabulous job! I especially enjoyed both of our attempts at reinacting our pumpkins' facial expressions. Trevor perfectly duplicated that one eye bigger than the other thing. He's a natural.

I love the way they look, glowing in the dark.

Carving pumpkins is one of my favorite fall activities. It was great to get to share this year's experience w/ my brother. I'm so glad I could be the first one to introduce him to the joys of gutting a fruit and drawing silly faces on it.

BTW, Brad oh-so-graciously "donated" his pumpkin to Trevor. Somehow, he didn't seem all that disappointed to be missing out on the awesome tradition. Hmm. His loss.

Pirate Paaarrrrrty!

Yo, ho, ho! Hill Ridge loves it some themed Halloween parties! This year, the Jordans hosted a pirate party for all of our scallywag friends and foes!

Since Kris was in charge, legit invitations were created and distributed in prep for the event.

Once Halloween was upon us, his house was transformed into a blimey tavern for us buckos, complete with hand painted signs, creepy skulls, fish nets, and cobwebs covering every surface.

No party is complete without some yummy grub! We feasted on soups and chili before we indulged in some buccaneer treats - pirate, mummy, and pumpkin cake pops, cannonballs (buckeyes), gold nuggets (cheese cubes), and fish of the sea (goldfish) were some of the biggest hits.

Of course, we all had to take turns at the photo booth.

Kris, Emily, and Layla

Charles, Emily, Charlie and Liv (in Emmy's tummy)

Wes and Stacey (He's a Samali pirate.)

Bret and Jessica

Walt, Cristin, and Harper

Steve and Zoia

Aaron and Tara (He was another Samali pirate.)

And shiver me timbers! Look at these sweet little pirate lasses!

We couldn't end the evening without a giant group shot in front of the house amidst the spooky fog machine and giant skull & crossbones.

I love dressing up and being silly with best friends! Halloween is even more fun as an adult than it is as a kid. It's not all about trick-or-treating and swapping candy with your brothers. Who knew? ...not to imply that there wasn't trunk-or-treating or swapping candy with friends, though, even as a grownup!

What'd you dress up as this year? Did you go to a party and/or trick or treating? Enjoy the candy!

[Complete Pirate Party photo album]

Best Bugs

Charlie Joy and Layla Grace are Best Buds Bugs!

For Halloween, Charlie was a little bumble bee and Layla was a (sleepy) ladybug! Yes, she was referred to as "Layla Bug" all weekend. Aren't they just the cutest little baby insects ever, ever??

And look! Charlie has started sitting up all on her own!! She's becoming such a big girl!

Can't you just feel the love between two BFs?? Okay, this might possibly be one-sided right now. It appears as though Layla may be trying to escape Charlie's lovin'. But they will surely be BFs as they grow up together!

"Why in the world is she just sleeping this whole time??"

"Wake up, Layla Bug!"

By the end of the photo shoot, Charlie was clearly finished posing. She was like, "C'mon, guys! I'm not even 6 months old, yet! Give me a break, here!" Layla just snoozed on...

I pretty much adore these girls and am already loving watching them grow up!

Fright of 2010

Brad and I don't watch a million scary movies every October, anymore, but how can you have a Halloween without at least a little fright? To meet our fear quota for the holiday, we joined our friends Alex and Amber and scared ourselves silly at Millers Thrillers Haunted Woods.

David and Harmony Miller (the corpse bride and groom in the picture) are friends of ours from college. It was really neat to support them and see for ourselves how great their haunted woods were. Every single costume was incredible, the trail was super spooky complete with lots of startled-scream-inducing frights. I'd give it an A+ even if it wasn't run by friends!

We couldn't take pictures on the trail, but here's one of the four of us waiting in line. It was taken shortly after a crazy jester got in my face and I screamed and I accidentally clutched onto Alex's arm instead of my own husband's. Seriously, it doesn't take much to scare me. I was the perfect victim.

Of course we had to woo a stranger into taking a group shot by the hay bale after we (barely) survived the woods. (Seriously, barely survived. We literally had to crawl through a broken down limo with a scary person sitting there and jumping out at every third or fourth person! So close! So scary!) To celebrate our survival, we each calmed down warmed up with a steaming cup of hot chocolate. Ahhh... That's better...

PS. Aren't Alex and Amber just so vogue?

I don't necessarily go crazy about Halloween like some people, but it is always fun to make a fool of yourself by nearly peeing your pants amidst a bunch of strangers, creepy clowns, corpses, and lumberjacks (they must work with wood, or why else would they all be using those chainsaws??) at least once a year. Thank you, Millers, for meeting that need. :)

Did you scare yourself silly this year? (AKA, did you pee your pants at all??)

Wild Wild West

For Halloween this year, Brad and I were a cowboy and girl visiting from the Wild West!

Can you believe that Brad made those chaps (complete with fringe) and that vest completely from scratch!?  They are totally legit. I am definitely impressed with his mad sewing skillz. Combined with my Target purchase (What? We're not that crafty!), together we made a pretty believable Western couple, huh?

Since surrounding ourselves with people we love is kind of our thing, we hosted a Cowboys and Indians costume party! A lot of our friends were able to get into character, as well, and many of them even joined in on the theme.

After we spent a substantial amount of time munching on all the festive goodies, many of us gathered together to play a game called Loaded Questions. What a hilarious way to get to know each other better! Lots of great laughs (and a few inappropriate comments) finalized our Happy Halloween of 2010.

I pretty much love our friends and getting to spend time with them. Having people over to our house (and finally having a house big enough to accommodate our party addiction) is pretty much one of Brad's and my favorite things in the whole world. Any excuse to have everyone over is good enough for us. Add costumes, games, finger foods, snacks, and punch to the mix, and we're totally sold.

We are so blessed to have these awesome people in our lives.

Love you all!

Did you and your family have a super great Halloween? If you dressed up, what were you??

Homemade Costume

My Mondays at work are always super busy, so I don't have time to compile the Halloween post that I'd like. But, since I know you're dying for some details, I'll give you a little teaser:

Brad sewed his own costume, this year. Can you believe it? He went to Joanne Fabrics, himself, finagled a pattern using his own clothes, then spent hours at the sewing machine creating it. You won't believe how great it turned out!

Any guesses on what he was/made? (No cheating, if you already know.)

Halloween at the Metcalfs

Got an email from TJ this morning along with some pictures of their Halloween. I laughed:

Thought you all might like to see some recent Halloween pictures. Mindy you need to tell your husband to come over next Halloween and we can do some good pumpkin carving with MAN tools not those wimpy 2nd grader girl carvers. We still haven't managed to talk Rachel out of wearing her swimsuit every day and want to go swimming even though its 40 degrees around here. I guess she is just going to be in a swimsuit year round.

I mean, for real, Rachel is so cute. I can't believe she was brave enough to touch the guts!!

I guess these were the "MAN tools" he was referring to. Seriously, TJ? A saw? And then you put your daughter in a helmet just in case it gets away from you, or what?? No wonder he was making fun of Brad's "wimpy 2nd grader girl carvers." That is so my brother...

Here is the result of all of that "MAN carving." A very manly pumpkin display, indeed! I cracked up when I saw this. The Pumpkin Horror is apparently wreaking havoc among the townsfolk. He's destroyed one, beat up another, is eating a little one, about to throw another, and causing one to vomit all over himself in terror! Honestly, somebody has got to gather some control over Pumpkinville! (Sheesh. And I thought Brad's pumpkin wasn't very nice...)

Here's the fam trick-or-treating. Those Metcalf girls sure do make beautiful Snow Whites! Look at Rachel with all that lipstick on! I'm not sure what Clinton was, except staying warm. But he's still super cute!

Oh, and here's Rachel in that adorable swimming suit she loves to wear. Of course, it's princess. I love that she's wearing boots to keep warm, but still chooses to wear the suit regardless of the temperature. She is hilarious. Such a diva.

Okay, that's all. Thanks for indulging me. I just enjoyed the pictures so much and laughed so hard that I couldn't help but share them. What a great family. :)

Grins and Grimaces

Remember those giant pumpkins we got for dirt cheap? Well, they had just been sitting around our house as un-animated decorations. With Brad's crazy schedule, it had been extremely difficult to plan our Annual Pumpkin Carving Ceremony, this year. We finally managed to squeeze in the oh-so-important fall tradition on Halloween day. Thank goodness. I was beginning to get nervous!

With the second appearance of our helpful Pumpkin Super Scooper, Brad and I each created our very own masterpieces. (Also, the second appearance of the now-traditional eat-the-pumpkin-goop-from-the-super-scooper-picture. Nice.) While I sought his opinion regarding eye shapes and teeth placement, Brad refused let me see even a glimpse of his design until it was fully complete.

And now you can see why. Since he was doing his own jack-o-lantern this year, he decided to make it spooky, creepy, and "not wimpy." Obviously, his pumpkin didn't like being stabbed in the head, hence the grimace. He was very proud of his handiwork. (I believe he used his own portrait as the inspiration.)

Boy, mine sure is cute and cuddly. Such a sweet little thing to see glowing in our home. However, I guess boys will be boys. I never anticipated that the Pumpkin Carving Ceremony would exhibit our true gender differences, but alas, we are indeed much different at heart... (By the way, notice, in the previous picture, which pumpkin Chester prefers. Ahem.)

Even though the ceremony was last-minute, that didn't meant that we neglected the important things, like self portraits of us using the camera timer! Who knew we were such great artists??

PS. Notice how much shorter I really am than my husband. In nearly every other picture of us together, I'm unconsciously standing as high as I can on my tippiest tip toes to diminish the height difference. However, with the combination of the running to grab the pumpkin and get into position in under 10 seconds, and the weight of that ginormous pumpkin, I stood flat-footed. Wow. Maybe our friends realized how much taller he is (notice, that he's taller, not that I'm shorter), but I never see us next to each other except in pictures in which I'm on my toes. Honestly, how do we even kiss each other??

Anyway, tell me all about your own Pumpkin Carving Ceremonies! Did you get super creative? Did you go for happy or scary? Did you stand on your toes for the picture? I'm dying to know...

Complete Halloween 2009 Album