Friday, November 5, 2010

Halloween at the Hoyt's

After having only one trick or treater last year, we opted to go to my parents for all Halloween festivities this year.
I was having a really hard time getting into my favorite holiday this year and didn't even pull out my decorations.
Finally on October 29th, I managed to muster up enough energy to carve a pumpkin and make a few Halloween treats.
Matt and I developed carver's block this year and could not think of anything to carve. Eventually we came up with a few ideas. Mine is supposed to be an owl on a tree. Matt's is obviously a bunch of skulls. He did much better than me this year.
After carving pumpkins, we decided to make use of a few of my mom's gingerbread houses that she's been whipping out for a Super Saturday. We quickly turned them from Christmas to Halloween.
Like Matt's graves?
We also made chocolate covered pretzel rods.
Matt and his co-workers gave them an A+.
The next day I still wasn't feeling to 'Halloweeny' so I made sure to get a Halloween pedicure to help boost my spirits and I can honestly say it did. There's something about having a tiny little spider on a glittery web on each toe that makes me absolutely giddy.
On Sunday we returned to my parent's house to hand out candy and throw together a Halloween themed meal.
My parents and their 2 new dogs- Andy and Wallace.
Tucker does not appreciate the new additions to the family and is one butt sniff away from taking one of them out as you can see below. He's such an old man.
Since I didn't get out any Halloween decorations, Tucker's Lobster costume was packed far away. So instead I threw a bandanna on him and made him a western dog.
Tucker refused to look at me for a picture...
so I grabbed him and forced him to look. :-)
Dinner was weak...really weak. It consisted of a vegan chili that had no Halloween theme to it, Mummy Veggie Dogs, and French Frights...(I was really stretching on those fries).
Dessert was test tasting of Orange Crème Brulée...
Chocolate Crème Brulée Ghosts...
And these fun Candy Corn Cupcakes that I had always wanted to make!
Sadly, I did not portion my orange and yellow batter well enough and you can't tell they're striped...but they were!
After dinner the Trick or Treaters arrived and we were ready with tons of candy! There's even more than this hiding around the corner.
AND we of course made a few special bags for the polite children. Manners are hard to come by these days- they should be rewarded!
I'm glad I have sweet parents that let me use their house, humor my lame meals, willingly try the copious amounts of desserts I'm always making, and then help me clean it all up when I'm quickly exhausted from it all.
I hope everyone had a great Halloween.