Our Very Happy Halloween

Halloween started with getting up super early to make something to contribute to potluck lunch at work. I made a big batch of chili using Brown Eyed Baker’s recipe – a classic beef and bean chili, with just the perfect amount of kick. While it was simmering, I made homemade corn bread muffins using a recipe from Erin’s blog. They came out perfectly light and fluffy. I’d never tasted cornbread muffins like that before and now I can’t go back!

 

My coworker brought this extra creepy carved ham skull with pearl onion eye balls, fish sauce blood, shrimp brains and carved apple teeth. It looked amazing, but I think that everyone was too nervous to eat it.

 

As soon as I got home, we got to work carving our pumpkins. Talk about last minute! After the whole post on carving white pumpkins, I went with the drilled hole look. I wanted a random polka dot pattern which was incredibly easy. I just used my power drill to make random holes in the pumpkin.

 

Garrett is the true artist in the family and got to work on his detailed bat design.

 

I think they turned out great! It was a very windy night, so we put three tealights in each one and thankfully they didn’t blow out. If they have survived the storm today, I’d love to relight them for the next few nights until the squirrels get to them.

 

We don’t get trick-or-treaters where we are, so we gave some candy to the kids in our building and then headed out to a local museum. By day it is normally a beautiful gothic revival home, but at night the shadows and creaky floors get quite spooky.

 

I posted this creepy photo of the stairs on instagram.

 

By dimming the lights in each room, it made them look so different. I have expected someone to jump out from each room (thankfully they didn’t).

 

Bats hanging from antique chandeliers. Looks like something out of Casper.

 

After that we headed out to the theatre for a little movie date, followed by a drive through the neighbourhood to see all the decorations. It was a packed day, full of lots of spooky fun. The only thing that would have made it better is if it hadn’t rained all day! It seemed like there were barely any kids out in costumes and that’s one of my favourite parts. Hope you all had a safe and happy Halloween!