Wack-o-ween

This past weekend we got away to Shaver Lake with our friends, the Wiens' family for our made-up holiday known as Wack-o-ween. Our families have been close friends for years, but we have found that it can be hard to spend quality time with each other once the holiday season begins. So we made up a holiday to "carve out" some time with each other before the season gets away from us! Here's Randy and Aaron on the back porch, grillin' up dinner. As is true with most holiday gatherings, food is essential! And when it's Christa and I cooking, it's LOTS of GOOD food (if I do say so myself). This year our menu included biscuits and sausage gravy, grilled pork tenderloin with chunky spiced applesauce and swiss baked potatoes, Jack-o-lantern pancakes, mashed potatoes with BBQ meatballs (a la Pioneer Woman), and, of course, our pumpkin chocolate cake cooked in our pumpkin pan...double the glaze!
Wack-o-ween isn't complete with pumpkin carving either! Isaac decided not to carve his pumpkin this year, but decorate it. We gave him a hammer, some nails, screws, and odd hardware pieces lying around, and this is what he made! Isaac's on the left, Levi's on the right. Here are the carved pumpkins. The rest of the weekend was filled with games, crafts, story-telling, and some fun outdoors when the rain would stop! See the Wiens' blog for more pictures and stories from the weekend!