“It’s as much fun to scare as to be scared.” ~ Vincent Price
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In our household, October 31 officially rings in autumn. The cooler temps don’t ‘fall’ until late October anymore, bringing the oppressive Texas days into a more comfortable mid-80’s. Nights and mornings are seasonably cooler than the past several months, and we begin enjoying stretches of time hanging in the out-of-doors again.
So long, Summer. You’ve been a brute.
Come autumn, the windows open at night, and on a weekend when the skies are clear and the moon is bright, up goes the tent for some spook-infused yard-sleeping.
After a dinner of Coleman-propane grilled veggie hot dogs and potato salad, the kids were keen to carve pumpkins. We get ours from pumpkin patch a few towns over (it’s actually a strawberry farm) so the kids have a variety of sizes and shapes from which to choose.
In past Halloweens, Dad did most of the work. Okay, that’s a lie; he did all the work. Now, the kids do everything on their own: picking, designing, carving, cleaning.
While the older three still get the biggest pumpkin they can manage to carry out on their own, Ginny opted for the pie pumpkin size this time. It’s lighter to carry, less time to empty and decorate, and decidedly less clean-up afterward, she rationalizes.
Smart girl.
We keep the seeds to roast and eat throughout the week. As much of the flesh that we can conserve gets steamed and saved for (later) soups and desserts.
We’re vegan, so we get our own candy and stay off the streets for the big ‘Trick-or-treat’ night. It’s more fun (and cheaper) to eat sweets and popcorn and snuggle up to a horror film at home. We never get knocks on the door as our neighborhood is horrible for walking–no sidewalks, no street lights, and a low of candy-to-home ratio.
And then there are all the Halloween creatures. Who-who can resist such a frightful delight?
Sleepy Spidey
Barred Owl
Creepy Night Camping Sounds
Yip! Yip! Yip!
Howwwwwwl ..
More Creepy Night Camping Sounds
A Lazy Pumpkin Photo
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What are your autumn traditions?
Happy Halloween!
DirtNKids Blog 
This looks like so much fun, Shannon. I hope you, Scott, and the “kids” had a great time!
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I don’t know about the smaller kids, but the big ‘kids’ (aka Mom and Dad) really enjoyed it! It’s nice to have a yard space in which tent-camping is a cinch.
Now, if only temps would get out of the 80’s ..
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Usually the “nonchalant” teenage phase during which they can’t show too much enthusiasm passes! 🙂
If you lived in CO, you would be enjoying 40 degrees and a chance of snow today (hint, hint…). On the other hand, you would miss out on Barred Owls and all those Texas Coast birds. Tough choice.
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Tough choice indeed. But I am envious of the cool weather. Feels weird planting a winter garden when it’s 85 out!
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When did your kids get so adult-like!?
We have a mad dash home, get ready, load up in the car, and rush over to a friend’s house. We’ve been going for 4 years and what started with a few families with one baby each has grown into a few families with 2-3 kids each and aunts, uncles, and grandparents in tow. So a pack of 10-15 kids under the age of 6 all squealing and celebrating one house at a time with a village on watch for trips, spills, and spooked kiddos.
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That sounds like a blast! Annual traditions are better spent with good friends as families. I’ll bet they were all pretty tired this morning. We had a nasty T-storm rip through our area, complete with tornadoes and hail. Fortunately, it missed us, but neighboring towns weren’t so lucky. Beautiful today, though.
On kids growing, they tend to do that. The teen years are all the fun with less ‘maintenance,’ now that they do most things themselves. They do all the house cleaning now (I still do the toilets).
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We got caught in the rain and a cold front, persisted for a short time, and with more candy than these little two need by half, went back inside.
I’m glad everyone there stayed safe!
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When you mentioned strawberries, I wondered if your pumpkins came from Frobergs Farm. They always do such a good job of providing fun for the kids, and great pumpkins.
Nature came trick or treating tonight — the front just hit her about a half hour ago, with a lot of wind and rain. It’s good it waited until the kids had finished their fun — although your way of celebrating at home sounds just fine to me. I loved your photos, too — especially that owl.
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You got it! Froberg used to be smaller, and we have been going there for 15 years or so. They are nearly exclusively strawberries (which we don’t eat much of) now, so pumpkins are a great excuse to go there at least once a year.
Fun for the kids indeed!
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Love the photos!! But my favorite is the spider! I think spiders are way cool! I LOVE to watch them weave their webs. I have some awesome pics of ones in my yard. 🙂
Happy Halloween/Fall! 🎃
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I’m partial to spiders myself, mostly ’cause everyone else wants to squish or kill them. Do you have a search box on your blog? One that would send me to ‘spiders?’ I’d love to see your yard variety!
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I got your notes and links. Your ‘writer spider’ is an argiope or orb weaver, St. Andrew’s Cross spider I think is the name. We get the golden orb weavers here .. they are fabulous to watch!
Do you know the species of the fat re-spiked one? I think they’re all great photos, BTW. I use the iPhone almost exclusively these days (except for birds).
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