Haunting Halloween Hints

What do you do for halloween?

I live in a small, child friendly cul-de-sac and my neighbours are great at halloween. Last year there were cobwebs and witches, pumpkins and spiders adorning nearly every porch. OTT? Well, maybe, but maybe not. I found it to be a sign of 'neighbourliness', an indication that we are in this together, between us we can make this fun, your kids are welcome to knock on my door - I liked it!

For me, with a three month, old this neighbourhood enthusiasm was a sign I should get prepared for visitors! I had no sweets in the house so I quickly knocked up some chocolate butterfly cakes, only instead of making a butterfly shape, I turned them into witches hats. OK, so they weren't great - I did have to explain what they were supposed to be - but everyone was impressed with my efforts none the less.

This year I have a 15 month old. I need to make a little more effort. I am going to carve a pumpkin for the first time in my adult life! I've been asking seasoned mums for hints - a pumpkin carving kit was recommended by each of them, so I have been onto a well known internet site and purchased this.

I have been searching for hints, and found some great images of brilliant carvings

But mine is probably more likely to look a bit like this

I have bought two - a practice one and another one. 

Then of course there are the treats! I feel I need to live up to my reputation of making nice cakes, but I also want to better my previous efforts... I have decided on pumpkin muffins (well, can't let all that pumpkin go to waste now can we!) which I am going to ice with white icing, and then paint on a spider  using black writing icing. Ambitious? For me maybe, but I can do a practice run on these too. I am thinking we could have visitors on Saturday night, though with the school holidays being a week later than usual this could mean that the majority of folks come on the actual day.

I'll let you know how it goes!

So what are you doing?

Any more halloween expert parents got some tips to share to help the rest of prepare?

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