A Score of Pumpkins

We spent most of Saturday getting ready for our Pumpkin Carving Party, baking 80 bread sticks and preparing dough for bread ghosts, cooking my potato mushroom soup and prepping for Jennifer's beef stew. Jennifer got up early on Sunday to get the crock pots started with the stew. She then went to church, only to promptly return for another quick nap before church stated for real - another victim of the DST time change.

On Sunday I finished the breads and we managed to get the kitchen and house look presentable by the time everyone showed up. And pretty much everyone did show up - we packed about 30 people into the house (a third of which we kids). All in all, there were about 20 carved pumpkins by the time everyone left. My favorite pumpkin was Luciana's devil (right most in this picture). The spookiest photo is the O'Reilly Family pumpkin - the spider web and the black-lighted masonry in the background give it the right gothic tone. Jennifer and I didn't really have too much time for carving - we may do some pumpkin prep work before the party next time. Her pumpkin is the one on bottom left and mine is the one between the scorpion and snake in this picture.