Our family Halloween fest

Our Halloween day was filled with fun. We went out to lunch with the McDonalds cards that Grandma Leslie, Papa and Matt had sent us. The girls got happy meals and ice cream. They loved that. Then we came home and decorated the front of the house for trick 'r treaters. As soon as Daddy got home we decided to carve our pumpkins that we got at the pumpkin patch. They all were simple but turned out cute enough to show off. The girls wanted to play with the pumpkin knives, but they didn't want anything to do with spooning the seeds out. That job was left to Mommy. Isn't it great to be a mom sometimes? After finishing our pumpkins and putting them on the front porch, we ate our Halloween pumpkin soup and quesadillas. It is Mommy's favorite fall soup. That was yummy!

Pumpkin and Black Bean Soup
Recipe courtesy Rachael Ray
2 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, 1 turn of the pan 1 medium onion, finely chopped 3 cups canned or packaged vegetable stock, found on soup aisle 1 can (14 1/2 ounces) diced tomatoes in juice 1 can (15 ounces) black beans, drained 2 cans (15 ounces) pumpkin puree (found often on the baking aisle) 1 cup heavy cream 1 tablespoon curry powder, 1 palm full 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin, 1/2 palm full 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper, eyeball it in the palm of your hand Coarse salt 20 blades fresh chives, chopped or snipped, for garnish
Heat a soup pot over medium heat. Add oil. When oil is hot, add onion. Saute onions 5 minutes. Add broth, tomatoes, black beans and pumpkin puree. Stir to combine ingredients and bring soup to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low and stir in cream, curry, cumin, cayenne and salt, to taste. Simmer 5 minutes, adjust seasonings and serve garnished with chopped chives.

Finally, we got ourselves ready for trick 'r treating. The girls were really tired

but not too tired to go out for candy.

Here is Haley carving her first pumpkin...first one she got to carve that is.
Kayla leisurely spooning out one seed at a time.
Daddy finally gets it together and carves his pumpkin.
Haley found some bumble bee antenea from two

years ago and thought she had to wear them.
Funny thing is that she wore them right above

her eyes instead of on the top of her head.

Kayla, put that finger away!

"Let us pray."
"Am I growing horns yet?"

For some reason Kayla's head piece was larger than Keeleys and she couldn't keep it on. I am not sure if it was larger or she just had a smaller head. I had to tie it as tight as I could in order for it to stay on.


"MMM candy, I love candy." "I wonder if I will get any suckers."
My two sweet sheep. Can you get any more adorable than that?
"Like that little tail shake I just did?"
"Yah, that house was a sweet shop."
"Anyone here to give us candy?"
"My basket isn't full yet...we have to keep going."
There was this house with a really cute pumpkin carving. They had it like a window with a cat in one section, a spider in one and pumpkin in the other. The girls were quite impressed. However, Kayla just couldn't take her eye off that spider on the door. She is so afraid of spiders.

"Cheese Daddy."
"Mom, this hat is too tight now."