Trick or Treat Day!

This was the first year EVER we've had trick or treaters! Ben & Sarah came over in costume to help pass out candy. There were some cute and some just interesting costumes that appeared on our porch. It was a beautiful night, and it was really nice to sit on our porch and meet neighbors, and hopefully just show that our home is open and that we care about the little things (& people) in our neighborhood. So the 5 of us (Bode included) sat around, had some chili followed by picking out the chocolate pieces of candy from the bowl to munch on, chatting and commenting on costumes.



Attempting to get the ears out of the hat:



Bode, given bones and having plenty to look at, behaved himself quite well and kept his costume on the best he could!



Sometimes he sat so still that people even asked if he was real. One lady took a picture. Some people were scared of him which is understandable, but they couldn't stop talking about him.

Reformed Halloween Festivities

We wouldn't rank Halloween anywhere close to our top 10 favorite times of year, but the annual pumpkin party still makes the list! Our 1 continuous lament is that we don't have a place big enough for all the people we love and want to party with us. Maybe next year we'll expand outside our home for that reason. But our tiny shindig was a great time - so we wanted to post the winners of The 3rd Annual Maclean Family Pumpkin Carving Contest! This year was the most evenly divided for votes because all the pumpakins represented were great! Check it out...

This was the first time Team Maclean dressed up for Halloween, and the first time we have 3 in our team, so everyone participated - like it or not. Can you guess what we are?


That's Little Red Riding Hood and the clever Big Bad Wolf dressed up as grandma! His ears stuck out of his hat except that most of the time he wore the hat his ears were back in protest of being in costume. Kind of lost some of the wolfiness that way. Thanks to Mom for making the red cape and finding such a difficult find as that kind of hat for Bode to sport! All credit to Mom for making and providing my Halloween costume for the upteenth time in life. That brings back good memories...




The first brave souls to unveil their pumpkins were Matt & Bry. Can you believe this is their first carved pumpkin? Feast your eyes on "Cricker Cooler"


For some reason we started taking pictures of the carvers with their pumpkins after this first entry, but here are the artists:



This is also the lovely chef of the now-famous PUMPKIN BARS!!! mmmmmmmm

Forgive me, friends who were there, I can't remember if "Cricker Cooler" or the next pumpkin won the much coveted "MOST ORIGINAL PUMPKIN" award. Both got plenty of votes for it and both were definitely original! Feel free to comment and correct me on who officially won.

Behold:

Wow. An ode to Al.

Also by the same artists, an adorable Hoo Pumpkin!

Aaawwwwww

And here are the artists: Ben & Sarah!


Please give a golf clap for this year's "A FOR EFFORT" award: "WJD!"


John & Kristie with their winning pumpkin:


Next up: the winners of this year's "CUTEST PUMPKIN" award...(drum roll)..."i Pumpkin" by Scott & Sunshine!


This cutest pumpkin had an apple on one side, and an "i" on the other. That's detail!

The next pumpkin to be unveiled ended up being the winner of the "3rd Annual Maclean Family Pumpkin Carving Contest BEST PUMPKIN" award!!!! The winner of this award received more votes from all attendees for Favorite Pumpkin - a very high honor and difficult to achieve. If you had to choose one pumpkin to sit on your porch, to show your friends, to greet trick or treaters, THIS would be the pumpkin of choice. Please give a hearty congrats and pat on the back to: "Pierre"!


The artists, Tom & Nikki, gained this award by Pierre's creativity, free-handed skill, detailed curly stache and general all-around cuteness that just makes you smile.


Speaking of detail and skill, the next pumpkin had 'em all beat. Introducing "The Juan Maclean" - winner of the "BEST DISPLAY OF SKILL" award!

This, my friends, is an amazingly accurate depiction of the techno star who stole Juan's name! And this is Travis, who was so thoughtful to make the pumpkin-dedication.


Since it was our party, we got to go last. We don't have expert carving skills, so to make up for it, we went for the shock factor. Presenting the "SCARIEST PUMPKIN" award winner: "Bad Hair Day"


Debbie removed the red cape to prevent it catching on fire, but Juan is still sporting his lumberjack costume, in case you were wondering why he's dressed like that.

Thanks again to all involved for all the great punkins and for a great party! Only 1 year til the next one so you better start thinking ahead to keep up with the Pumpkin Joneses.