Return of the Pumpkin Round-Up

Sadly, another Halloween has come and gone. Lady Di and I have snuck as much candy as we're going to get from the kids. They have hidden their stash in their rooms from us. I'm trying to teach Ruby the art of tracking. So far, she is no bloodhound.

Anyway, it's time for our annual Pumpkin Round-Up. This is where I force you to look through all my Halloween pictures whether you like it or not. This is the fifth year of Pumpkin Round-Up. If you would like to see previous year's pumpkins, go ahead and click here, here, here, or here.

Now, on to business. Let's start with Number One Son's Gourd's of Creativity.

It's pumpkins season and it's football season. N1S saved time by combining them.

His next pumpkin requires technical cleverness to figure out.

This is a smiling jack-o-lantern but it's not just a sideways face. Can you figure out the riddle? The answer is at the end of this post if you dare to continue!

Next in line are from Sweet Pea's gruesome collection. SP has been carving her own pumpkins for three years now and each year she creates a vomiting pumpkin.

Although, this one I believe just has a bad sinus infection. His friend is a skull but Lady Di and I thought it looked cute with a squash hat.

This one is a self portrait of SP. If you scroll down the right side of the blog you will see a picture resembling this. By the way, that candle skull lights up and was home made.

The next group of pumpkins were carved by yours truly.

I just couldn't pass up this warty lumpy orb. SP suggested that the bulbous bump should be made into an eye. So this is my mismatched eye pumpkin. And also my little squash buddy.

I call the next jack-o-lantern my Charlie Brown. I had a little trouble with the knife.

My last pumpkin is my favorite. It's carved in the style of The Nightmare Before Christmas and it is lighted with a green Christmas bulb.

And the best, I must confess, I have saved for the last. Lady Di's pirate pumpkin complete with silver tooth.

Eventually, I ran out of pumpkins and looked around the garage for something else to carve. We had two acorn squash that I carved into lanterns that we hung from two planters on the porch. The picture isn't too good but they really glowed with the porch lights off.

The jack-o-lanterns set the stage for a festive Halloween night.

SP dressed as a Titanic victim. I think she hoped that people would feel sorry for her and give her more candy.

And N1S was Darth Vader. He also made a sign that said "Please donate candy to build new Death Star". He said he got an extra candy bar from one home and another home jeered him. Must have been a Jedi home.

This is the Invisible Man holding his invisible bowl of candy.
Well, did you solve N1S's jack-o-lantern riddle? The answer lies on your keyboard just under your right pinky finger and just above the zero key. :) LOL

Halloween Hangover

Halloween has come and gone, but like a Minnesota goodbye, I'm dragging the season out as long as possible. I finally got the last string of orange lights in the box and stowed in the attic this week. Remarkably, tearing down the decorations took a lot less time than the two weeks it took to properly haunt our front yard.

So here is the official recap of our most favorite holiday.

Our Halloween spirit got an early start with a cookie bake with the kids at the end of September. I waited a full week into October before hauling out the boxes and chests and cauldrons of happy horror. Here is a picture of our house mostly spookified. I had a few more bats and cobwebs to add before the big night. You can click on the picture to enlarge it if you dare.

I rigged the owl on the left to have light up orange eyes to match the orange flame bulbs around the archway.

I, once again, unearthed a forgotten cemetery under our gallows tree. I put the same orange lights hanging loosely from the tree and added a black pumpkin with green lighted face.

Last year's scarecrow flew into town on his broom just in time.

And then the windstorm hit. We had two days of wind gusts up to 60mph.Poor Jack Scarecrow's post snapped in two.

Even cute little Spidey-poo got tipped over.

But don't worry, this story has a happy ending. The Great Pumpkin came through on the day before All Hallow's Eve and set everything right.

Now just a note about our pumpkins to wrap things up. I did a few new things with this year's jack-o-lanterns. I decided to put a string of purple lights in two of our larger pumpkins and have them flash on and off. It really worked great but I seemed to have lost the picture of them.

Since the lights worked so well, I put a single green bulb in this shark pumpkin.

N1S called this our disco ball pumpkin. I made it with two sizes of drill bits. The candlelight really did shine out like a disco ball.

This is SP's small gray pumpkin that she named Squidward.

And about five or six other jack-o-lanterns filled up the remaining empty spots in the yard. Next year I may skip the tall skinny pumpkins because they are just too hard to clean out. I'll also allow about three extra hours for N1S to design his jack-o-lantern. SP finished three faces to his one.

Well, only 300 odd days until our next haunting. But less than two month until the next house decorating. If you live in Minnesota, I hope you already have your Christmas lights on the roof.

Dead Man's Party

I hope that every one's night of fright was filled with sweets, scares and only a few tricks. We had a cool night but the wind died down just in time to provide a perfect evening for Lady Di and the kids to fill bags with candy. I was put on house duty and doled out treats to around sixty ghouls and goblins.

This year, we tried a new mix of Halloween candy. In addition to Snickers and Butterfingers, we added Pringles Stix, Animal Crackers and Grips Chips Deluxe packs. The parents of the younger trick or treaters appreciated the Animal Crackers. I was surprised to see the Pringle Stix going faster than any of the chocolate. I don't know if it was because it looked like something new, or because it was the longest package in the bowl. Regardless, at the end of the night, we were left with only ten Snickers and two Animal Crackers. Which just happened to be exactly what I had calculated to be my cut for the evening.

The kids used scary and pretty costumes to help them in their candy begging.

Sweet Pea picked out a harlequin mask and went as a Mardi Gras diva. She had no idea what Mardi Gras was, but she still accepted each compliment with a 'Thank You'. She just liked the mask at the store. Number One Son wore a skull mask with a camouflage hat. An old graduation gown from the dress up box in the basement, completed his costume.

And for those that were unable to view our house decorations this year, here is my annual pumpkin round up for this season. We only carved nine gourds this year.

I started with this 'Boo' pumpkin because it was rotten when we brought it home and I didn't want to spend too much time carving it.

These two are N1S's 'rock star' and SP's 'rock star groupie' pumpkins. I think SP was going for a pumpkin with H1N1 but I wouldn't let her use pumpkin guts for the vomit. But with the little blings she put on the pumpkin, it looks like she's screaming to her favorite rock song. So much so, that you can see the little 'white mint' in her mouth. N1S's might be Ace Frehley.

The kids also carved these two by themselves. It looks like SP's eyebrow got a little too involved with her eye on this one.

These two were a couple that I carved. I don't think they turned out too bad.

And this one was my favorite. At the pumpkin stand I had to buy it because it's shape was almost exactly like a skull. So I tried to carve a skull face and didn't butcher it too badly.

That is pretty much our Halloween. Now comes the task of disposing of all of the candy the kids carted home. I'm sure I'll find a way.

Revenge of the Great Pumpkin

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. I like to decorate the house with lights, ghouls and, of course pumpkins. So this spring, I decided to plant a pumpkin patch in my back yard.

My seeds started off strong. I had almost all of my mounds sprout with multiple plants. It wasn't long before I got my first bloom too. As the weeks went by, more blooms would appear but no pumpkins. So I went on-line to find out what the secret was. Apparently, pumpkin vines have male blooms and female blooms. This information would have been useful on the seed package. Anyway, since there is a shortage of bees to transfer pollen from the male blooms to the female blooms, we sometimes have to help them along.

So in order to set the mood for my blooms to get together and make a pumpkin, I dimmed the lights, played a romantic Barry White song on my ipod and left a tray of oysters and chocolates on the ground. When that didn't work, I went back to the Internet which told me how to gently transfer pollen.

Once that was done, amazingly, I had a small pumpkin starting to grow. I knew then that I was going to earn my farmer's tan this year. In my excitement, I visited it everyday and watered it every other day to make sure it wouldn't dry out.

After about two weeks, I noticed my little pumpkin getting smaller and wrinklier and eventually it fell off the vine. I also noticed about half of my plants were getting sick and withering. I thought, maybe I was watering too much. So I let them dry out a while, which seemed to help.

It was quite a while before I got any more female blooms. I guess they are much rarer than males. So I did some more match making when I did get the right blooms, but these pumpkins did the same thing by growing for awhile before dying. This was around the end of August. My garden was looking more pathetic by the day.

So I figured there must be an anti-pumpkin hex on my garden. And the only way to get rid of an A-P hex is with a scarecrow, of course. But even that didn't seem to help.

So a friend of mine suggested that they might not be getting enough sunshine. Since I planted my garden among some shade trees, this could be true.

So I got my chain saw out and leveled all the trees in the backyard. No, I really only trimmed a couple of branches that were hanging over the garden. But by this time, it seemed too late for any pumpkins of size. So I concentrated on nurturing the few small lemon-sized orbs I had.

I watered a little, propped up a few vines a little and prayed a little. But my plants continued to look sickly and miserable.

And then....., a miracle!

On the week before Halloween, my garden exploded with orange spheres of all sizes and shapes. Some were oval. Some round. Small, medium, large and extra large. It was incredible! I could hardly believe it! It was almost as if someone had mysteriously loaded up a truck load of pumpkins from the local farmers market and dumped them into my garden before anyone had a chance to catch him in the act.

I guess my farmer's tan wasn't wasted after all. However the pumpkins got there, they will be put to good use on All Hallow's Eve, frightening and delighting trick-or-treaters of all ages.

I think I will try growing pumpkins again next year. I may also try a few new things just to see what will come out of the ground. I'll have a good eight months to think about it anyway.

Green Acres

I've always wanted to plant a garden but I just never seemed to have the space or the time. This year I set aside 8 feet square of space to force me to find the time to plant it. So I guess I'm a farmer now. Which I know is an insult to real farmers world wide but that's what I'm going with.

Here is a picture of my victory garden.

This year, with luck, it will be a pumpkin patch. Strictly for Halloween jack-o-lanterns. The seed package said to plant 3 to 4 seeds per mound and to space the mounds four feet apart. I planted 5 to 6 seeds per mound and squeezed them together as much as I could. I'm going for quantity instead of quality. Actually, I will be happy with anything orange.

My main goal will be to keep our vegetable marauders out long enough to get a harvest. Next on the list is to make an intimidating scarecrow to keep watch over my precious patch.

Along with the pumpkin seeds, I planted a couple other 'surprises' that everyone will have to wait for in the fall.

As the days tick onward I will hopefully have some pictures of something actually growing besides weeds to show. Until then, I have to get my overalls washed and fetch some water from the well. I will let you know when to come over for the barn raising.

Wednesday Pumpkin Roundup

In a continuation of a Halloween tradition, here for your consideration are our pumpkins for this year. Once again our kindly neighbor hosted his annual pumpkin carving party. And once again, he donated his extra pumpkins to our Halloween display. This year ten pumpkins were the victims of a vicious holiday display. Investigators found the murder weapons in the garage.

The crime scene was secured and chalk outlines were drawn.

The grisly details were documented in several photos taken by officials.

Jack Skellington 'the Pumpkin King' and Cinderella were patterns chosen by myself and Sweet Pea. Thank you to Creative Type Dad for supplying the patterns.

I also have Creative Type Dad to thank for this Chewbacca pattern chosen by Number One Son. And by thank, I mean, I'll never do Chewbacca again because my hand is cramped into a permanent claw.

Here are two of Sweet Pea's original designs. Frankenstein is on the right and a five eyed alien on the left. She seems to want to put whiskers on at least one pumpkin every year.

Lady Di wanted to send a message to all of our trick or treaters on Halloween.

Lastly, I liked this little pumpkin just because he had a long curved stem pointing straight over his face like an elf hat.

We had a few other pumpkins that didn't make it into the camera, but believe me they were spectacular. Last year I let the kids each carve a pumpkin. This year they were so tired from poking holes around their patterns that their hands had no strength to hold the pumpkin saw.

Maybe, next year Creative Type Dad will come out with a nice triangle eye, nose and smile pattern.

Halloween Pumpkin Roundup

Here are pictures of this years pumpkins at the Stuff in My Brain household. I need to give credit to Clare's Dad for the title of the post.

Sweet Pea picked out this pumpkin because she liked the bumps. So this is our Bumpy Pumpkin.

She also picked our a tiny warty pumpkin which she had to wash as soon at we got home. The bumpy pumpkin also got a bath.

Number One Son designed these. He even got to carve his own pumpkin for the first time. He did the middle one with the whiskers. For some reason, whiskers were popular on our pumpkins this year.

Yup, more whiskers. These are Sweet Pea's designs. She also got a taste of carving her own pumpkin. She did most of the top one. Note, she got a little zealous with the saw on one of the eyes.

Dad did these. I know they are kind of boring. I always let the kids draw their designs and then I try to carve them. When Sweet Pea was little she drew a face with one small eye and one large eye. I liked that look, so every year I carve at least one pumpkin with mismatched eyes.

Last but not least. This is the kind of pumpkin you get if you carve it a week and a half early. I think the sagging face makes it look pretty good.

Pumpkins are a favorite part of Halloween for me. I didn't do any Yoda pumpkins like my neighbor, but my designs still say Halloween. I like the faces that my kids design the best. They have all of the creativity anyway.

I just realized that I forgot to take a picture of the bumpy pumpkin. Oh well, I guess there is always next year.

I also just realized that this is my 100th post. Who woulda thought? And on a holiday too.

Summer Over? Never!

I heard from someone that summer is now over. Is summer really over? The temperature still seems like summer. Flowers are still blooming. I'm still mowing the lawn. I'm not ready to release summer from my kung-fu grip just yet. Just because Labor Day has come and gone, doesn't mean I can't still work on my awesome farmer's tan lines. I can still hear cicadas in the trees and I can still walk barefoot in the grass. Oh no, summer is not over yet.

Every year, summer speeds by faster. We never have enough time to do all of the things we want to do. Since we had a record number of ninety degree days this year, we got to swim more than previous years. Both pool and beach. We played baseball and soccer. We got to go to the State Fair. We went to the Mall of America. We went to a Twins game. We rode bikes and played with chalk and bubbles. We went to parades. We did a little fishing and golfing. We visited family in three states. We had a few bonfires with smores in the back yard. We even went camping for the first time as a family. Summer always seems so short. We hardly got to do anything!

If summer fun really is over, what can I look forward to now? Let's see. I can look forward to cold weather and shovelling snow. (Yay! Minnesota!) I guess that also means less mosquitoes. Also, now that the kids are in school, I can try out that napping program I've been developing. But only on my mornings off from work. Maybe, Lady Di and I can do some exercising together. Or maybe a little golf. When the mildly cooler weather comes, I won't have to mow the lawn as much. Plus, I won't sweat a bucket and a half while doing it. We will get to go to high school football games on Fridays, and watch college football on Saturdays, and pro football on Sundays. If you call Vikings football, pro. We have trips to the apple orchard and pumpkin patch planned. Church suppers will also start filling the calendar. Then comes Halloween, burning leaves, hot chocolate and before you know it, Thanksgiving. Gee, I wish summer wouldn't last so darned long. I never have enough time for my Autumn fun stuff.

But how can school actually be starting already?

Even though summer seemed to go on endlessly, school sneaked up on us again. Let me clarify, school sneaked up on me. Lady Di was ready weeks ago. She not only gathered school supplies from the kids' school lists, she packed their backpacks and had them ready last week.

N1S starts school tomorrow, and Sweet Pea starts in two days. We'll see if we can strap them down for bed tonight. It will be hard for them to sleep, knowing all the fun stuff we have to do, now that summer is finally over.