Halloween Weekend 2010

Halloween 2010!

This Halloween was the best Halloween I have ever had. For me, Halloween usually consisted of me getting blown off by friends, or not being allowed to hang out with my friends. This year it was all about the family and it was wonderful. I am really big on traditions so this was pretty much a perfect weekend. 

We started out on Saturday morning taking family (+ Kyle) pictures at Lake Shawnee and taking naps and having random plans for most of the day. We ate dinner together and then at a rather late hour decided to make popcorn balls and caramel apples. It was a lot of fun, and its not often that you catch the whole family doing something like this together. 

Caramel Apples YUM! :) 

Apples + Kraft Caramel Pieces (in the baking aisle) melt as directed and then dip apples or drizzle with the caramel. Let sit on waxed paper and then in the fridge to solidify.

Making Popcorn Balls 

Popcorn Balls

Pop your own popcorn w/o salt/butter and set aside.
In another pot melt 1 stick of butter, 1 package of mini marshmallows (plus some if you want) and then dirzzle Karo corn syrup to your hearts content. 

Melt and stir to combine. 

Mix into popcorn and squeeze into ball shapes. 

Set on waxed paper to set. 

You can add candies or M&M's if you want, but it is much harder to get them to stick together that way. 

Wrap in cellophane or plastic wrap and enjoy!

Dad adding the gooey mixture to the popcorn

Some of the M&M popcorn balls

Jess and Kyle squishing the chocolate popcorn balls.

Dad pretending to sneeze in his nasty gooey popcorn ball hands. I won't even show you the close up its so nasty!

After these festivities we watched Clue the movie on ABC family. If you haven't seen it you should. Its great, really pretty funny and very entertaining. Clue is my favorite board game (of all time) so this was a treat for me. And we actually watched it ALL! :) It has 3 alternate endings and ABC family showed them all in a row which was really fun. 

The next day (Halloween) the festivities resumed. Kyle and I got to sleep in for once and then we helped dad prep the pumpkins for carving. I wanted to be as sustainable as possible, so I saved all of the seeds and other insides so it wouldn't get thrown away. I roasted the seeds (for the first time) and then saved all of the other fruit for grandma in a plastic bag so that she could throw them in her compost bin (that's right my grandma composts!). 

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Take pumpkin seeds and separate from any pumpkin flesh. Rinse and drain with a strainer.

Measure 3 cups of fresh pumpkin seeds and put in sauce pan with 4 cups of water and 2 tsp of salt

Boil for 15 minutes, then drain in a strainer and let drip dry.

Mix 1 TBSP of olive oil, 1 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp of paprika in the dried sauce pan.

Pat seeds dry and then mix into spice/oil mixture. 

Once thuroughly combined spread 1 layer thick on baking sheets.

Bake for 30 minutes.

Enjoy!

recipe courtesy of delish.com

Then we carved our pumpkins. And for me I think this was my first time actually carving a pumpkin by myself. 20 years old. sigh. It was a blast though and our steps looked legit. 

 

Dad Carving Olivia's Cat Pumpkin.

Kyle Carving His Pumpkin.

Jess Carving Her Pumpkin.

My Pumpkin!

Kyle's Pumpkin!

Jess's Darth Vader Pumpkin.

Olivia and Dad's Cat Pumpkin.

The Porter's Pumpkin. Carved by Kyle. :) 

Look How Cute our Steps look!

Other than that we watched Hocus Pocus while I painted Jess and Olivia's nails to go with their costumes, and then grandma and Bob came to visit. We had homemade chicken and noodles and some biscuits for dinner. Our counter looked surreal.

YUM

Olivia made a cute spider t-shirt at day care that she wore up until she transformed into sleeping beauty.

So cute.

We told our cat Griswald, (Gris/z) that it was his day because he is the definition of a black cat :)

Not so happy I woke him up from his nap for the picture but oh well. 

Jess dressed up as a vintage KU cheerleader and Olivia was Sleeping Beauty. They are both way too cute. This year I was without a costume, but next year I will add that to the traditions for sure. :) It just sneaks up on you so fast!

Rock Chalk.

Sleeping Beauty (awake)

It was the greatest Halloween ever. Can't wait until Thanksgiving and Christmas to create more family traditions and fun! 

Alexandra