I must admit, Halloween is not my favorite holiday, but it sure is a good excuse to be silly and have fun with friends. It’s a holiday made for friends.
My favorite thing about Halloween has been the fun tradition that Pete and I have slowly made with our friends, Lee and Jenn. This year was the third year in a row that we carved pumpkins together and, admittedly, was a bit odd, since this year we made them together over Skype instead of in person at a house (you might remember that they are in Ottawa).
It is a tradition I definitely want to keep. I only say that it was odd because I found it quite difficult to be motivated to carve my pumpkin quickly. I think it was because of the time difference. We started at about 5pm (Edmonton time), Jenn and Lee were two hours ahead of us and already gutting their pumpkins when we got online, while Pete and I were trying to scarf down a quick grilled cheese sandwich since we had only just gotten home from work. It was still a lot of fun, especially since pumpkin carving is largely just an excuse to get together and hang out and chat. So Jenn made a fantastic tree in her pumpkin (depicting the Whomping Willow from the Harry Potter series – very bad-ass) and Lee made an awesome Cylon from Battlestar Galactica. I wish I had pictures of theirs; they were so cool!
Unfortunately, Pete and I had little success. I made an awesome snake and carved in funky letters “Slytherin” above it (again from the HP series). Pete gutted his pumpkin, resolved to carve it the next day because his hands were cold, and he really just liked hanging out and chatting. The lack of success comes from the fact that we negligently left our pumpkins sitting on our kitchen table with the blinds open. Over the next day the sun beat mercilessly through the windows and dried and shriveled our pumpkins out completely. So we don’t have a single picture of them even with the candles lit inside. They didn’t make it to Halloween.
Next, my mom and I spent an evening baking cupcakes in prep for mine and Pete’s Harry Potter themed Halloween party. The next day I made chocolate frogs.
The day after that was the day of the party. I decorated those cupcakes like no one’s business (and found that my decorating handicap, as mentioned previously, shows in the Gryffindor House Cupcakes). I made two different dips, Guacamole and Lemon Dilly Dip, both from Epicure, and set up our kitchen table as the “treats” table.
There were house-cupcakes, Bertie Bott’s Every Flavoured Beans, Gillyweed, Chocolate Frogs, and Butterbeer:
There was even a terrifying Basilisk:
Overall, it was a fantastic party. The only thing missing was a few friends who couldn’t make it.
You can check more pictures out here if you like.
Cheers, and Happy Halloween!
Tess.
P.S. A special thank you to Rebecca C., who always inspires me with beautiful children’s parties, delicious baking (of which I have had the immense pleasure of tasting), and super rad ideas. I continue to aspire to achieve her level of fantastic. She doesn’t have her own website yet, but hopefully one is coming soon. You can check out her son’s party that has been featured on other websites: here and here. I hope to someday throw as pretty-looking parties as she does.
