Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween! Yes, I know tomorrow is Thanksgiving, but that post will come after Thanksgiving. It is a Burningham tradition to get together before Halloween to eat sloppy joes and carve pumpkins. We did this with the Beal family when I was a little girl. I loved those family parties with homemade root beer and sawdust scramble. My Grandpa Fred would have a tarp with a huge pile of sawdust on it. In the sawdust he'd put candy and coins. Each age group of cousins would have a certain amount of time to dig through the sawdust for treasures to keep. I LOVE those memories. Sloppy Joes for Halloween is another tradition from the Beal family. My mom had them on Halloween as a little girl, I had them as a little girl and thankfully Daniel likes Sloppy Joes, so I can make them someday for our kids.

A few months ago I found this awesome brain jello mold online. So I brought a brain to the dinner.

My mom made darling eyeball rolls and Annie made cute cupcakes.

After all of the eating, the fun begins...The carving competition! We used to carve without patterns, but now the patterns have become the norm and helped us create detailed creations.  Here are the before, during and after pictures:

 That pumpkin was NOT going to get away from my mom! I love this picture :)

 Chels was framed so nicely by the chandelier

 Oh Ciara...

 Ciara-Gnome and mushroom, Chels-witch, Dad-Angry Bird

 Taylors-Grimm Reaper, Burninghams-flying witch

Mom-Pirate, Cait-Hot air balloon

For the school parade, I was a Kitten who had lost my Mitten. I do not love cats, but a teacher on my team LOVES cats. She has a cat that is pretty much her baby-seriously. She talks about it's first loose tooth, how it is in trouble because it didn't cuddle with her in the morning, how it bakes cookies with her, etc. Needless to say, she was in charge of the costume idea this year. Daniel cashed in on some mechanic clothes from his brother Stephen, so that is what he was at work.

That night we had some of our first trick-or-treater in our new house. It was so much fun! I loved seeing their costumes and hearing them say "trick-or-treat". It warmed my heart to be in our house for Halloween! One of my favorite holidays. We went to a party at our friend's house. Blair and Liz watch Nightmare Before Christmas every year and have a feast. Here is the group:

And here is the spread-AMAZING! We brought the doughnuts-BORING!

These are some cookies I made for dinner at the Taylor's using a reg. sugar cookie recipe with food coloring.

Hope you had a Happy Halloween this year!