Green pumpkins

I'm not a huge fan of Halloween. I would much rather play games as a family than try and think of a costume and brave the trick-or-treating crowds. But as a Mommy, I thought I should at least try to get in the Halloween spirit for Rain.

So, I bought pumpkins--around the first week of October. I was bound and determined to carve pumpkins. I bought a big one and a little one. I brought them home and set them on my counter. "Look Rain, PUMPKINS!" So big and orange. Well, days passed and between chasing cows, building corrals, cutting cedar posts, and life in general, they sat on my counter--faceless--yet I could feel their eyes boring into me every time I walked past them, or pushed them this way or that way to make room on the counter for food, playdoh, or coloring books. The day I would plan to carve them, would be the night that Shane didn't get home until after the girls were in bed.

Halloween loomed nearer and I noticed a strange phenomenon. My pumpkins were turning GREEN! . . . and not from mold. How could a pumpkin that was bright orange when I bought it, grow chronologically backwards and turn unripe, I wondered. Now my pumpkins didn't have faces, nor were they even the right color. 

Well, October 30th dawned, and I told Shane we were carving pumpkins that night, with or without him. Daddy made a special effort to be home and we carved our green pumpkin. Rain enjoyed playing with her "cumpin," and the candle inside was an extra cool idea for her. So for Halloween we had a carved green pumpkin face, roasted seeds, and went to the ward Trunk-or-Treat. Rain was a little camo girl on behalf of Uncle Joe who is in the Marines boot camp.

One of the first costumes she saw at the Trunk or Treat was a gorilla who tried to give her a piece of candy. It petrified her and for days after, all she could repeat was "scary monkey" over and over. Several days later, I unthinkingly checked out Tarzan from the library. Probably not the best timing. Maybe she'll enjoy it better another time.