Pumpkin Carving

The Great Zoo Halloween IX

We've been going to the Great Zoo Halloween every October since Zachary was nine months old. Kids wear their costumes and get treats at nine different stations. The zoo lines every pathway with lights and hundreds of carved and painted pumpkins. We went tonight for our ninth annual zoo Halloween trip. For the past several years, we've been eating at Logan's Roadhouse after collecting our treats. We can't remember exactly how the Logan's tradition started, but we think it's a good excuse to eat good rolls drenched in butter.
Here is Lauren's recap of the evening: "I liked the candy and the people were nice. I like the candy because it's all sugary. I bet Zachary liked the candy, too. The lights on the zoo train were pretty. I liked the pawprint on the pumpkin. It looked like a jack-o-lantern and it was, maybe. I liked my costume and Zachary's Harry Potter costume. A lot of people recognized him. I was cold there because I didn't have my coat on. I had fun there, though. I loved it. After that, we went to Logan's Roadhouse. I thought it was nice. I like the peanuts at Logan's." So, there you have it from the Lauren the Barbie Mariposa fairy, who insisted we call her "Fairy" while she was in costume. Zachary wanted us to call him Harry, so we spent the evening with our children, Harry and Fairy. :-)

Happy Birthday, David!

Tomorrow is David's 35th birthday! As Matt so tactfully pointed out, he's halfway to 70! We celebrated today with a low country boil (shrimp, potatoes, corn, and sausage), cornbread, fruit, pumpkin trifle, and spice cake with loads of frosting and sprinkles. We got the idea for the low country boil from some of our trips south. We tried it in Charleston, SC, Tybee Island, GA (near Savannah), and Hilton Head, SC. David requested the pumpkin trifle for his birthday dessert after we found it in one of the recent Taste of Home issues. Lauren and I also made a spice cake so the non-pumpkin-trifle fans could eat some birthday cake. (It's also a little difficult to put candles on a trifle.) Of course, we were reminded of the Friends episode where Rachel accidentally combines a trifle recipe with a shepherd's pie recipe. Joey liked it: "Custard, good. Jam, good. Meat, goooooood!" We left the meat out of our trifle, and used spice cake, a pumpkin mixture (pumpkin pie filling, brown sugar, and vanilla pudding), and Cool Whip. We're still stuffed but we're planning on having huge meal #2 tonight since we have so many leftovers. Happy birthday, David!

Trying on the Halloween Costumes

We made one last trip to the zoo this weekend before it closed for the season. We decided to keep the panda that made its way home with us.











Lauren was inspired to do some baking after we saw the Halloween decorating supplies at Wal-Mart.










(Top) Lauren's new bedazzled (i.e. pierced) ears
(Bottom) Zachary & David reading a bedtime book

The Curse of the Giant Silverado

As you may recall from the series of pictures below, the car dealership loaned us a giant, 4-door Silverado to drive while our Equinox was getting some wiring fixed. After "enjoying" the gas guzzling gargantu-truck for several days, we finally got to send the Silverado back to its dealership home and we got the Equinox back. Lo and behold, yesterday David got into a little fender bender with the van. The poor little van was towed away last night, crumpled hood and all. What did the dealership give us? The same darn Silverado! Zachary and Lauren were happy to have the monstrosity back. It must have an affinity for our driveway.