Something Not-At-All Wicked This Way Comes

In case you've been living in a deep, dark hole and missed it: Halloween is almost here!! So, as all good parents would, Andy and I spent the day doing our best to prepare for this holiday in a way that's appropriate for a 15-month old. Basically, this means completely avoiding anything that could be remotely construed as scary.

The first thing we needed was a pumpkin to carve a cute face into, so off to the plant nursery/pumpkin patch we went.

As luck would have it, some future costume ideas for Ava presented themselves...

Those were pretty cute, but I think this one is my favorite...

We moved on from the pumpkin patch and headed to Target where we picked up all the plates, napkins, and shiny decorations we could find that were guaranteed NOT to scare the pants off anybody.

Our final challenge for the day was to take our giant pumpkin and carve it into a character worthy of a Saturday morning cartoon. It was hard work, but I think you'll agree we accomplished our goal; by the time we were done I just wanted to give the thing a hug.

Happy (almost) Halloween, everybody. Boo!!!