BYOP - At the Parks (Year 8)

Given the current state of our backyard, we were in no condition to host. 

Luckily, Lindsey & Colin offered up their amazing house for the festivities! So the pumpkin carving party tradition continued.

We had a crazy Sunday with each kid needing to be in a completely different area of Dallas at the exact same time. 

Grayson and Hayden both had soccer games and Ryan had a birthday party. 

Grayson scored 1.5 goals and he was so proud. A friend texted me and said how cute he was when he scored - he looked for his dad and grandparents and gave them the biggest smile! Love how proud he was! 

And across town, I was with Hayden at her soccer game. It was a scorcher. I love how she runs around on the field and participates...but she isn't really into kicking the ball. Maybe next season...

After Hayden's soccer game we ran home and grabbed our stuff for the pumpkin party! I attempted to make The Baker Mama's Halloween Snack Board.

but mine kinda turned out like it's weird cousin or something...

Oh well. 

To save us a little work, Kevin and the kiddos prepped their pumpkins the night before by scooping all the insides out. We also saved the pumpkin seeds and toasted them in the oven! 

The kids were super excited about carving their pumpkins. 

Well, Grayson and Ryan were - Hayden just sent her request in. 

Ryan wanted something scary

Grayson wanted a wolf

Hayden wanted a unicorn kitty cat.

I quickly got to work on Hayden's - she was SO thrilled with the results.  Pretty sure she didn't even sure if she stopped what she was doing to see the end result. Lol! Four-year-olds.

Grayson helped Kevin by holding his iPhone with a picture of a wolf template on it.  And I am sure encouraging words. 

And then we both helped Ryan (maybe Kevin a tad more) to carve his scary skeleton face. 

And for some reason, I still haven't taken a picture of the pumpkins. Coming soon!

And then we ate chili and hot dogs...and the kids ran around and all played. 

It was a magical fall night. 

Even though it was like 80 degrees. details.

The kiddos had so much fun together!

And so did the mamas! 

6th Annual Pumpkin Carving

Last night we had friends over for our annual pumpkin carving party!

Tate was adorable as Mickey Mouse!

Audrey got right to work...

The boys were excited to carve their pumpkins too! (although Grayson's face clearly doesn't express that...)

Apparently Kevin hates carving pumpkins. For some reason I forget this every year until we are actually doing it...

Deciding what to carve...

Ryan with his Star Wars themed pumpkin. I have no idea which character it is.

Susanne and sweet Caroline. 

Caleb and Bob eating dinner. Caleb loved Bob and I think he also thought he was funny looking. I am pretty sure he had no idea Bob was actually a dog. Caleb didn't even care when Bob bit him. Although Bob is missing more than half of his teeth, his growl is still pretty scary! It was probably incredibly infuriating that Caleb wasn't scared! lol. What a tough little man!

Love me some cookie cake!

And Susanne brought Mix and Match Mamas funfetti bunt cake! Yum!

We had so much food and of course lots of yummy BOOze :)

Clothing became optional....

Carmel apple bar success!

This little nugget stealing toppings!

Baby Hayden! lol

Caleb being shy...

Lighting of the pumpkins...

So proud of all their work! 

BYOP 2013

Yay! Our third annual pumpkin carving party! Since Halloween was on a Thursday night this year we had to host the carving party on a week night - otherwise the carved pumpkins would have rotted before Halloween! It was a tad hectic since we were out of town the weekend before, I didn't have Kevin home to help set everything up, and for some reason I decided to make most of the food AND a lot of the party printables myself! Even though I already had most of my decorations up I somehow always manage to add more and more work/ideas up until game time...I don't think I will ever be fully prepared for a party. I am always running around like a crazy woman...but I still love doing it!
Anyhow, oh how I wish I had a photographer friend...my pics aren't really all that great. I really loved my Halloween decor but I don't think these pics do justice!

For dinner we served chick-fil-a nuggets, fruit, veggies, and cheese for the kiddos. I tend to serve this a lot...maybe it's because I love eating leftover cold chick-fil-a while I clean up. Weird? maybe. Anyhow, for the adults I made pork sliders, buffalo chicken dip and this three meat chili recipe (so delicious)...apparently I don't have any vegetarian friends...that I know of.

And for the SWEETS :) I made/served rice crispy treats dipped in white chocolate and sprinkled with halloween sprinkles, brownie bites with orange icing and a candy corn, oreo cake balls and some cupcakes! I love a good ol sugar high! 

I made these cute little straw flags - it was actually really easy!

Found lots of cute wooden signs at Swoozies!

The banner is from The TomKat Studio - actually a Martha Stewart product! 

My crafty little self created these fun pumpkins - pinterest inspired, of course!

I created a "Chili Bar" but didn't really take a good picture. It wasn't really set up all that fancy since the Chili was actually on the stove. I was excited to use cute little orange ice cream cups for the chili bowls! they worked perfectly!

Awards for the pumpkin carving contest!

And now for the FUN!

Batman (Ryan) & Spiderman (Andy)

The kiddos painting some pumpkins!

Sweet little jailbird Hayes

The Hoard family - Eileen as sleeping beauty and Truman as a tiger!

Elysia with Mia as a puppy and Isabella as a pirate!

Brannen with construction worker Henry and Oliver as a little duck!

Lissa with her adorable puppy dogs - Emme & Pierce!

Kate, Ana & Hanna. Our neighbors...and I know their costumes have specific names (no, not just a cat) but I am not cool enough to remember or figure out on my own...even though I have asked them about 5x's what they are/were. 

Katie with Charlie as Johnny football (the Longhorn version) and Evie as a UT Cheerleader

The Smith family - Patton as Kent Clark and Emma as a fairy princess.

The Bottermans

Karen with Spiderman (Landon) and baby brother Ethan

The Haydels - Louise as Little Red Riding Hood!

The Musgraves - Meghan as tinkerbell and Parker as Batman!

The Baldwins

The Fowlers - Ford as a policeman and his little brother Hayes as a jailbird!

The Davis family - Lily as a pumpkin and Luke as Superman!

Nat, Jack, G and myself....whew!

I tired...oh I tried to get a pictured of EVERYONE...but alas I did not succeed. Boo! Anyhow, as party favors I gave out these (printable frame free from TomKat Studio, frames from Ikea):

My idea was two-fold 

1. They are adorable! Who doesn't love a picture as a keepsake? 

2. So that I would do a better job taking pictures of the party. However, it was quite a job...although I had help printing and fixing the frames, taking the pics was hard....it's just hard to wrangle kids. I should have gotten everyone as they walked in the door...but then again I would have had to greet everyone as they walked in and I couldn't even do that!  

hmmmm like I said...I really need a photographer friend!

 And yes, there was actually some pumpkin carving. 

8 pumpkins to judge. So cute! I love that this year it was actually mostly kids that were able to carve them (clearly older than toddlers)! It will be super fun when our kids get to the carving age!