Carving pumpkins and making bars!

Happy Halloween!! We have recovered from a lost costume snafu and are ready for trick or treating today! (In case you missed my Facebook post...we could not find Grady's costume for his Halloween party at preschool Friday. Searched high and low and at the last minute, decided to throw him in swim trucks, a t, and goggles and call him "swimmer man." Grady actually loved it, BUT since finding his Spiderman costume (in the bottom drawer of my dresser, under some workout clothes) he has not let it out of his sight! He slept with it last night, and when he couldn't find it in the middle of the night, he called me until I came up and dug it out of the tangled sheets. I suppose that's fair.)

Anyway, I digress. This post is about the fun things we're up to today and the yummy treats that I am making! I thought today would be another working Saturday (like last week, when we took another tree down) but it turned out to be free. So this morning we carved up some pumpkins...Josh and Grady worked on one, Kingsley and I on the other. I don't think you would have any trouble figuring out who did which! Josh and Grady made a scary face, while Miss K and I carved an H into ours. Pictures to follow.

Of course I had to do something with those pumpkin seeds! I am trying my hand at roasting them for the first time. Here's the process I am following....scoop them out, de-gunk as much as possible, then boil for about 10 minutes to further separate gunk from seeds. Did all that, now have the seeds spread out on a cookie sheet to dry for about 24 hours. Then, I'm going to mix them in 2 T. melted butter and 1 t. of garlic salt and roast for, I think, 45 min at 350. I heard they are DELISH hot...we'll have to see!!

I am also making pumpkin bars..I would love to say it's from the pumpkin as well, but that's just not true! Canned all the way...I have no idea how they go from the pumpkin to the canned stuff, but I don't think I have that in me. :) I replaced the cup of oil with a cup of applesauce (holla, Claire!) and reduced the sugar by a half cup. Now, I don't know how to go about frosting them...or should I not?

The kids cannot wait for trick or treating tonight!! I have a little Spiderman and a little purple dragon. Pictures to follow, as well as a report on my treats! Happy Halloween!