'Twas the Night Before Halloween...

and, no, I will not be continuing on in poem form.  I'm afraid I am simply not that talented.  Instead I will give you my night in pictures.

After that trip to the pumpkin patch last week, I had a pumpkin hanging around waiting to be given a face.  I wanted to have my nephew over to "help" me with it.  I knew I'd be home alone tonight, and since tomorrow I won't have to go to work, I figured it would be the perfect time to have him over for a little one-on-one Halloween fun.

I picked him up at his house.  He wanted to wear his costume, so we had my sister take a picture of the two of us together before we left.   And so, Iron Man and the 50s girl began their night.

By the way, this is the skirt I made yesterday.

After getting ourselves a little dinner and watching Finding Nemo, we got into our aprons to do a little baking.  I really should make him his own apron.  Perhaps a Superman one. He shouldn't have to wear this Christmas one all year, but it's the only one we have that really fits him.

Personally, I love any opportunity to wear my apron, but I especially loved wearing it over my new circle skirt!

(From this point on, all pictures of me were taken by my nephew.)

I wanted to do some fall shaped cookies that we would be able to decorate, so we went with gingerbread cookies.  I have a fabulous recipe for gingerbread cookies, but makes a lot more cookies than I wanted to do tonight, so I used a recipe I found online.  Honestly, it wasn't worth sharing with you.  However, we had a great time making them, so that's what counts, right?

Sifting is Fun!!

I don't know about you, but personally I want to kiss that little dot of flour right off his face!

"Am I a great helper?"

Yes you are, Iron Man.  Yes you are! 

The cookie dough had to spend some time in the fridge, so "we" moved on to pumpkin carving.  I had scooped it out this morning because I knew he'd have no patience for that.  I barely even have the patience for it!  (As a side note, have you ever seen your pumpkin seeds sprouting inside your pumpkin?  I never had before, but many of them were in this one.)

Iron Man was very insistent that the pumpkin's face be made mostly with triangles this year.  As there really wasn't much he could do to help with the carving, he stayed back watching, offering suggestions, and jumping around in must-not-stop-moving-or-I-will-fall-asleep mode.

I showed Iron Man the picture of the pumpkin we did together last year, and told him how he had chosen the name Rock Pumpkin. 

Apparently he still likes the name.  This year our pumpkin is named Pumpkin Rock.

Once we got our pumpkin mess cleaned up, it was time to cut out and bake our cookies.

As you can see, Iron Man had, by this time, changed into his Lightning McQueen PJs.  (I admit that this was very much against his will, but it was getting rather late.)

The late hour kept us from decorating our cookies.  That will have to wait till tomorrow.

We finished the night with Yertle the Turtle, a drink of water, and a tearful hunt for a replacement stuffed animal for the bunny he'd accidentally left at home.

Goodnight,  little man!